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A  UTHOR: 


SHUTTLEWORTH, 
PHILIP  NICHOLAS 


TITLE: 


THE  CONSISTENCY  OF 
THE  WHOLE  SCHEME  .. 

PLACE: 

NEW  YORK 

DA  TE: 

1832 


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^*^^       '        Consistency    of ...  rUeUVion 

and    With  nurnan  reason. 
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With    itself 
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Beside  the  main  topic  this  book  also  treats  of 
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NEW  REUGIOUS  BOOKS,  FOR  GENERAL  READING 


I    ' 


J.  &  J.  HARPER,  NEW-YORK. 


i\\ 


HAVE    NOW    IN    THE    COURSE    OF    REPUBLICATION, 


THE 


THEOLOGICAL  LIBRARY. 


THIS  PUBLICATION  WILL  BE  COMPRISED  IN  A  KMITED  NUMBER  Of 

VOLUMES,  AND  IS  INTENDED  TO  FORM,  WHEN  COMPLETED, 

▲  DIGESTED  SYSTEM  OF  RELIGIOUS  AND 

ECCLESIASTICAL  KNOWLEDGE. 

THE   FIRST   NUMBER  (NOW  PUBLISHED)   CONTAINS 

THE    LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

BY  CHARLES   WEBB   LE   BAS,  M.A. 

Professor  in  the  East  India  College,  Herts ;  and  late  Fellow  of  Trinity 

College,  Cambridge. 

IN  ONE   VOLUME.      EMBELLISHED  WITH  ▲  PORTRAIT   OF  WICLIF, 


VOLUMES     IN     PREPARATION. 

THE  CONSISTENCY  OF  THE  WHOLE  SCHEME  OF  RE  VELA 

TION  WITH  ITSELF,  AND  WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 

By  p.  N.  Sutttlkworth,  D.D. 
arden  of  New  College,  Oxford.    (In  Press.) 

HISTORY    OF   THE    INaUISITION. 

Bv  Joskph  Blanco  Whitk,  M.A 
Of  the  University  of  Oxford. 

HISTORY   OF   THE   PRINCIPAL   COUNCILS. 

By  J.  H.  Newman,  M.A. 
Fellow  of  Oriel  College,  Oxford. 


THEOLOGICAL  LIBRARY  (continued). 


THE  LIVES  OF  THE  CONTIN*ENTAL  REFORMERS 

No.  I.    LIFE  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER. 
By  Uvou  J\mes  Ro^r..  B.D. 
Christian  Advocate  in  the  University  of  Cambridge. 

THE  LATER  DAYS  OF  THE  JEWISH  POLITY: 

With  a  copious  Introduction  and  Notes  (chiefly  derived  from  the  Tal- 

mudists  and  Rabbinical  Writers).    With  a  view  to  illustrate 

the  I^anguage,  the  Manners,  and  general  Ilistofv 

cf  the  Nkvv  Tkstamknt. 

BrTnoM^s  MiTrnicf.L,  Esq,  A.M. 
Late  Fellow  of  Sidney  Sussex  College,  Cambridge 

HISTORY    OF  THE  CHURCH   IN   IRELAND. 

By  C.  R.  Elrinoton,  D.D. 

Regius  Professor  of  Divinity  m  the  University  of  Dublin. 

THE  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION 

demonstrated  in  an  analytical  Inquiry  into  the  Evidence  on  which  the 
Belief  of  Christianity  has  been  established. 

By  William  R.iwe  LvAr  i  ,  M.A. 
Archdeacon  of  Colchester,  and  Rector  of  Fairstead  and  Weeley  in  Essei. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  REFORMED  RELIGION  IN  FRANCE. 

Bv  Eoward  S.vtKnr.EY,  MA. 
Late  Fellow  of  Sidney  Sus.sex  College,  Cambridge. 

HLLUSTRATIONS  OF  EASTERN  MANNERS,  SCRIP!  URAL 

PHRASEOLOGY,  &c. 

By  Samikj.  Lkk,  B.D.  F.R.S.  M.R.A.S. 
Regius  Professor  of  Hebrew  in  the  University  of  Cambridge. 

HISTORY    OF    SECTS. 

Bv  F.  E.  Thompson,  M.A. 
Perpetual  Curate  of  Brentford. 

SKETCH  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  LITURGIES: 

comprising  a  Particular  Account  of  the  Liti  roy  of  the  Church  of 

England. 

By  Hicnrv  John  Rosk,  B.D. 
Fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge 

HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH    IN    SCOTLAND, 

By  Michael  RrssRLL,  LL.D. 
Author  of  the  '*  Connexion  of  Sacred  and  Profane  History 

THE    LIFE    OF    GROTIU8. 

By  James  Nichols,  F.S.A. 
Author  of  "  Arminianism  and  CalvinisT  xi^aiparod.'' 


Harper's  Stereotype  Edition* 


/^COL.COT..L.^ 

I     THK 

LIBRARY. 

0  O  N  ^  I  S  ThF.taftK. 


^TH 


E   WHOLE    SCHEME 


OF 


REVELATION 

WITH 
ITSELF    AND    WITH 

HUMAN    REASON. 

BT 

%r        PHILIP  NICHOLAS  SHUTTLE  WORTH,  D.D. 

Wutlea  of  New  College,  Oxford,  and  Rector  of  Foxley,  Wilta, 

? 


NEW-YORK : 

PRINTED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  J.  &  J.  HARPER, 

NO.  82  CLIFF-STREKT, 

AND    SOLD   BY   THE    PRINCIPAL    BOOKSELLERS   THROUGHOUT 

THE    UNITED    STATES. 


(I 


1832. 


tiiEBfA,qS)Mis 


I 


.X 


The  object  of  the  following  dissertation  is  to  do 
justice  to  the  internal  evidences  of  Christianity, 
by  disencumbering  them  of  the  weight  of  that  class 
of  objections  which,  though  in  popular  discussion 
i  generally  considered  as  affecting  the  cause  of  reve- 

T  lation  exclusively,  stand  in  reality  in  no  need  of 
refutation,  for  the  plain  and  simple  reason  that 
they  are  applicable  in  exactly  the  same  degree  to 
every  possible  modification  of  religion  whatever. 
There  is  certainly  much  confusion  of  idea  dis- 
played in  the  mode  by  which  skeptics  for  the  most 
part  make  their  assaults  upon  the  credibility  of 
revelation.  Of  the  arguments  alleged  by  them, 
far  the  greater  proportion  will  usually  be  found  to 
militate  against  principles  already  admitted  by 
themselves,  while  almost  all  of  them  consist  of 
isolated  and  desultory  attacks  upon  some  detached 
point  of  belief,  rarely,  if  ever,  at  the  same  time 
taking  an  enlarged  and  impartial  survey  of  the 
antagonist  difficulties  which  attach  to  the  opposite 
view  of  the  same  question.  It  is  obvious,  how- 
ever, to  every  person  who  has  paid  the  slightest 
attention  to  the  topics  of  theology,  that  objections 
which,  when  considered  separately,  appear  per- 
fectly unanswerable,  may  often  lose  the  greater 

A2 


H 


6  PREFACE. 

part  of  their  power  of  embarrassment  when  taken 
as  integral  portions  of  a  complex  system,  and  even, 
when  viewed  as  a  counterpoise  to  other  proposi- 
tions not  less  formidable,  may  contribute  rather  to 
the  removal  than  the  suggestion  of  doubt.  Natu- 
ral no  less  than  revealed  religion,  in  fact,  consists 
of  a  mass  of  startling  problems,  each  of  which  in- 
dividually appears  pregnant  with  insuperable  diffi- 
culty, and  yet  between  the  counteracting  forces  of 
which  our  faith,  whether  as  philosophical  theists 
or  as  devout  Christians,  must  be  content  to  pre- 
serve its  balance.  Nothing,  accordingly,  is  so  easy 
of  achievement  as  the  task  undertaken  by  the  in- 
fidel, provided  his  object  be  to  become  the  assail- 
ant. He  has  only  to  limit  the  discussion  to  one 
single  view  of  a  necessarily  complex  subject,  and 
the  perplexities  which  immediately  suggest  them- 
selves will,  of  course,  so  long  as  we  confine  our- 
selves to  the  same  restricted  mode  of  defence, 
exceed  our  means  of  disentanglement.  The  ob- 
vious and,  indeed,  the  only  remedy  for  this  species 
of  misapprehension,  to  which  the  natural  indolence 
and  the  less  venial  passions  of  mankind  too  easily 
dispose  them,  is  that  of  acquiring,  as  much  as 
possible,  the  habit  of  looking  upon  the  subject- 
matter  of  our  religious  belief  as  an  entire  and  con- 
nected whole ;  and  of  considering  no  one  propo- 
sition which  it  seems  to  involve  as  altogether  in- 
admissible until  we  have  cautiously  balanced  it 
against  that  contradictory  dogma  which,  in  case 
of  its  rejection,  we  shall  be  obliged  lo  substitute 
in  its  place.  It  is  surely,  however,  no  breach  of 
charity  to  assert  that  the  skeptical  disputant  against 
revelation  rarely,  if  ever,  proceeds  to  this  length ; 


PREFACE.  7 

and  yet,  until  he  has  done  so,  it  is  certain  that  he 
has  not  given  the  grand  question  which  he  takes 
upon  himself  to  determine  the  consideration  which 
it  deserves,  and  which  it  is  fairly,  in  strict  reason- 
ing, capable  of  receiving.  The  object  aimed  at 
in  the  ensuing  pages  is,  to  expose  the  fallacy 
involved  in  this  mode  of  argument.  In  so  short 
a  work,  an  attempt  to  give  a  general  and  con- 
nected view  of  the  internal  evidences  of  our  faith 
must  necessarily  confine  itself  to  the  discussion  of 
the  more  general  and  prominent  topics.  It  will, 
however,  answer  its  purpose,  if,  by  affording  to  the 
reader  a  comprehensive  sketch  of  the  main  out- 
line, it  induces  him  to  fill  up  the  detail  by  pur- 
suing that  train  of  thought  which  the  contempla- 
tion of  so  interesting  a  subject  cannot  fail  to  sug- 
gest. Even  the  most  firmly-grounded  faith  in 
this  life  being  established  rather  upon  a  balance 
between  conflicting  difficulties  than  upon  positive 
demonstration,  it  follows,  that  the  wider  we  make 
our  intellectual  range  in  examining  the  general 
system  of  Providence,  the  more  we  become  famil- 
iarized with  those  astounding  facts  which  form  the 
basis  of  every  possible  theological  theory,  and  the 
less  we  are  in  consequence  disposed  to  be  offended 
with  what  we  find  to  be  rather  the  result  of  an 
incurable  defect  in  our  own  intellectual  apprehen- 
sions than  a  substantial  refutation  of  our  rehgious 
creed.  It  is  thus  that  in  proportion  as  we  advance 
in  practical  knowledge,  the  more  we  perceive  the 
wisdom  of  that  submission  of  the  understanding  in 
certain  cases,  the  idea  of  which  is  so  offensive  to 
every  beginner  in  the  study  of  theology,  but  of 
which  no  person  who,  by  laborious  experience, 


''— -^- 


8 


PREFACE. 


has  learned  the  necessity  of  walking  by  faith  will 
be  ashamed  to  make  his  profession.  Certain,  at 
all  events,  it  is,  that  the  denial  of  Christianity 
affords  no  escape  whatever  from  most  of  the  diffi- 
culties with  which,  in  the  hasty  judgment  of  man- 
kind, it  stands  almost  exclusively  charged.  To 
every  mind  endued  with  the  vital  feeling  of  religion 
sufficient  evidence  has  been  afforded  by  the  mercy 
of  the  Creator  for  every  purpose  of  effective  moral 
probation,  however  inadequate  it  may  be  for  the 
gratification  of  mere  curiosity  :  but  the  insatiable 
spirit  of  skepticism,  if  it  will  pursue  its  course 
rigorously  and  consistently  to  the  last,  has  in 
strictness  no  assignable  resting-place  or  limit  short 
of  the  hopeless  extreme  of  atheism  itself. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Ftg« 
The  Senilmentg  of  Religion  natural  to  the  human  Heart— The  natu- 
ral Reason  unequal  to  the  Investigation  of  remote  religious 
Truth— A  Revelation  is  therefore  necessary— The  authenticity 
of  any  presumed  Revelation  to  be  determined  uj)on  according  to 
external  and  internal  Evidence— Christianity  the  only  System  of 
religious  Belief  which  is  supported  by  any  substantial  Weight  of 
Proof IS 

CHAPTER  n. 

Of  the  Prejudices  commonly  entertained  by  Men  of  the  World 
against  Revelation |S 

CHAPTER  m 

Of  the  Difficulties  which  attach  in  common  ro  natural,  no  less  than 
revealed  Religion;  and  of  those  which  belong  exclusively  to 
Christianity sg 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Of  the  Necessity,  as  demonstrated  by  experience,  of  the  Existence 
of  awrilten  Revelation  of  the  Divine  Will 35 

CHAPTER  V. 
Of  the  Mosaic  History  of  the  Creation 43 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Of  the  Longevity  of  the  antediluvian  Generations 50 

CHAPTER  vn. 
Ofthe  Fall  ot  our  first  Parents M 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Of  the  History  of  the  general  Deluge,  and  the  ConAision  of  Tongues    65 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX.  ^^ 

Of  the  internal  Probability  of  the  peculiar  Revelation  of  the  Divine 
Will  contained  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  and  of  the  moral  len- 
dency  of  that  Revelaiioii 

CHAPTER  X. 

Of  the  moral  Tendency  of  the  Levitical  Institutions ^ 

CHAPTER  XI. 

no 

Of  the  miraculous  Incidents  recorded  by  Moses ^ 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Of  the  internal  Evidence  of  the  Authenticity  of  the  Books  of  Moses, 
and  of  the  other  Jewish  Scriptures 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Of  the  intenial  Evidence  of  the  Authenticity  of  the  historical  Books 
of  the  Old  Testament  substjquent  to  Moses ^^ 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  same  Subject  continued ^^ 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Further  Observations  upon  the  moral  Tendency  of  the  Levitical 
Institutions 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Of  the  Evidence  afforded  to  the  Authenticity  of  the  Levitical  Instl- 
tutions  by  the  onerous  Nature  of  its  Ritual,  and  the  present  State 
of  the  Jewish  People *** 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Of  the  Tendency  of  the  proi)hetic  Books  of  the  Old  Testament. .. .   150 

CHAPTER  XVni. 

fJonsistency  between  the  Covenant  of  Moses  and  that  of  Christ,  as 
haWnTan  Expiation  for  Sin  as  their  leading  Object-The  Leviti- 
cal Expiations  were  confessedly  ineffectual-It  must  be  pre- 
sumed.  therefore,  that  the  great  Purpose  of  the  C.ospe  Dispensa- 
tion wis  to  correct  this  Deficiency-The  popular  Objections  to 
the  Doctrine  of  Clirisi's  Atonement  examined iw 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
Of  the  Divinity  of  Christ *"' 


I 


CONTENTS.  1 1 

CHAPTER  XX. 
Of  Sdnctilication  by  the  Holy  Spirit ^ 

CHAPTER  XXL 

Of  the  practical  Tendency  of  the  Morality  of  the  Gospel,  and  of  the 
extraordmary  Gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit. ,.!.. ..... ...  igg 

CHAPTER  XXIL 

Recapitulation  of  some  of  the  foregoing  Observations— The  ScriD- 
tural  Doctrine  of  the  Divinity  of  t»ie  Holy  Spirit 204 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
Of  the  Holy  Trinity ^QS 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
Of  the  practical  Tendency  of  the  Christian  Virtue  of  "  Faith" 213 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
Of  ecclesiasticai  Authority  and  Ordinances 218 

CHAPTER  XXVL 
Of  the  Miracles  recorded  in  the  New  Testament 225 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

The  Evidence  of  the  Truth  of  Revelation  afforded  by  the  low  Con- 

W)rbihtv  ofVSnnrl^''"'"  ^^^'^^           Acquirements,  and  the  Im- 
possiDiiity  of  Confederacy  in  its  respective  Promulgators 239 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
Conclusion ^44 


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3 


•<      .^    »>    v..      ?>     »'     SK 


THE 


^•T      X 


CONSISTENCY  OF  REVELATION 


WITH 


HUMAN    REASON. 


CHAPTER  I. 

7*he  sentiments  of  Religion  natural  to  the  human  heart— TTie  Na^ 
tural  Reason  unequal  to  the  Investigation  of  remote  Religious 
Truth — A  Revelation  is  therefore  necessary — The  authentinty  of 
any  presumed  Revelation  to  be  determined  upon  according  to 
external  and  internal  Evidence — Christianity  the  only  system  of 
Religious  Belief  which  is  supported  by  any  substantial  weight  of 
proof. 

All  modifications  of  religious  belief  are,  or  at  least 
profess  to  be,  solutions,  so  far  as  our  means  of  informa- 
tion extend,  of  the  apparent  anomalies  discernible  in 
the  works  of  Divine  Providence.  As,  then,  that  reli- 
gion can  only  be  the  true  one  which  really  accords 
with  those  acknowledged  facts  in  the  physical  and 
moral  universe,  which  are  established  by  positive 
experiment,  it  necessarily  follows,  that  the  true  course 
for  arriving  at  a  correct  system  of  belief,  is  that  of 
studying  our  own  nature  carefully  and  impartially 
under  every  possible  aspect ;  of  ascertaining  its  real 
and  most  prominent  wants,  and  of  determining  which 
of  the  many  theories  offered  to  its  choice,  most  satis- 
factorily accounts  for  the  numerous  perplexing  cir- 
cumstances which  the  most  cursory  survey  cannot 
fail  to  recognise  in  the  existing  order  of  nature.  The 
Christian  dispensation  will,  we  conceive,  be  found 
upon  inquiry,  to  be  the  one  which  best— it  would,  in 
fact,  be  no  exaggeration  to  say,  which  exclusively — 

2 


14 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON- 


16 


answers  to  this  test ;  and  to  show  that  it  does  so, 
will  be  the  object  of  the  following  observations.  The 
question  thus  proposed  for  discussion  is  one  of  experi- 
ment, in  the  strictest  meaning  of  the  term  ;  the  basis 
of  the  argument  being  not  what  a  speculative  imagin- 
ation might  suppose  the  constitution  of  the  universe 
to  have  been,  had  God  so  willed  it,  but  what  it  actu- 
ally and  demonstrably  is.  The  conclusion  at  which, 
of  course,  we  hope  to  arrive,  will  be,  that  upon  that 
practical  basis  no  consistent  system  of  theological 
belief  can  be  erected,  excepting  that  for  the  possession 
of  which  we  are  indebted  to  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
Scriptures.  If  those  remote  and  mysterious  conclu- 
sions, which  we  deriv'e  from  that  Divine  source,  are 
found  strictly  to  harmonize  in  all  their  parts  with  the 
facts  previously  established  by  the  native  faculties  of 
our  minds,  the  probability  in  favour  of  its  presumed 
authenticity  is  at  once  established : — if  every  other 
possible  attempt  at  explication  is  found,  upon  examin- 
ation, either  to  mis-state  the  primary  truths  of  the  con- 
stitution of  nature,  or  to  fail  in  accounting  for  any  of 
its  startling  anomalies,  the  probability  thus  assumed 
will  amount  to  little  short  of  certainty.  Such  is  the 
position  which  we  trust  that  the  Christian  Revelation 
will  be  found  to  occupy,  if  impartially  examined,  in 
the  first  place,  as  a  system  of  doctrmes  consistent 
with  itself,  and  with  the  acknowledged  course  of 
nature;  and,  secondly,  when  contrasted  with  those 
various  theories  which  have,  from  time  to  time,  been 
urged  by  ingenious  men  in  opposition  to  it.  The 
question,  we  repeat,  is  one  of  strict  experiment ;  and 
being  such,  we  shall  commence  our  observations  by 
advancing  such  assertions  only  as  probably  no  reli- 
gionists of  whatever  denomination  will  hesitate  in 
admitting. 

No  one  fact,  then,  connected  with  the  circumstances 
of  human  nature  would  seem  to  be  more  completely 
established  by  experience  than  that  contained  in  the 
Scriptural  aphorism,  that  the  heart  of  man  is  evil 


from  his  youth.  This  evil  tendency  is  conspicuous, 
not  merely  in  the  gross  vices  and  ferocious  habits  of 
the  savage,  or  in  the  unsubdued  passions  of  the  com- 
paratively ignorant  members  of  more  civilized  com- 
munities, but  under  every,  the  most  plausible  modi- 
fication of  society  in  its  highest  state  of  artificial 
refinement.  The  same  selfishness  of  motive,  the 
same  worldliness  of  feeling,  the  same  concentration 
of  the  thoughts  upon  the  trifling  interests  of  sensual 
gratifications  of  the  present  moment,  with  a  reckless 
indifference  for  the  higher  principles  of  morals,  how- 
ever disguised  by  the  conventional  decencies  of  society, 
characterize  our  species  to  the  last,  wherever  the 
strong  external  stimulant  of  religion  is  wanting. 

Yet,  though  such  are  the  ordinary  habits  of  our 
nature  when  left  to  itself,  nothing,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  more  certain,  than  that  the  principle  of  religious 
feeling  is  also  natural  to  man,  and  suggests  to  him 
one  of  his  most  prominent  wants.  Let  his  attention 
once  be  diverted  from  its  usual  channel  by  some  strong 
moral  excitement — let  sickness  or  sorrow  dissipate 
for  a  moment  the  illusions  of  the  bodily  senses, — or 
the  intellectual  powers,  whether  from  curiosity  or 
some  worthier  motive,  seriously  occupy  themselves 
in  the  examination  of  the  great  questions  connected 
with  our  first  origin,  and  with  our  ultimate  destina- 
tion, and  a  reverential  feeling  of  devotion,  accom- 
panied by  a  consciousness  of  his  own  responsible 
position,  takes  possession  of  him  as  a  matter  of  course. 
That  the  sentiment  thus  roused  is  not  the  production 
of  mere  ignorance  and  superstition,  is  evident  from 
the  circumstance  that  the  accutest  understandings 
and  the  most  exquisitely  attempered  dispositions  are 
most  disposed  to  its  influence.  We  have  only  to  feel 
it  in  order  to  be  unanswerably  convinced  of  its  Divine 
origin.  The  sensations  thus  excited  are  experimen- 
tally the  noblest  and  the  purest  of  any  that  we  are 
conscious  of  possessing.  The  uniform  mode  of  their 
operation,  in  every  variety  of  the  human  mind,  is 


*^ 


16 


CONSISTENCY  OF  REVELATION 


again  another  proof  that  they  derive  their  origin  from 
the  regular  course  of  our  natural  constitution,  and  not 
from  the  desultory  suggestions  of  caprice.  That,  for 
instance,  the  examination  of  the  wonderful  structure 
of  the  universe  leads  us  necessarily,  by  a  direct  and 
unanswerable  chain  of  inference,  to  the  theory  of  an 
intelligent  and  self-existent  First  Cause  ;  thai  a  like 
examination  of  our  own  intellectual  operations  and 
perceptions  leads  us  as  necessarily  to  conclusions 
favourable  to  the  doctrine  of  the  immateriality,*  and, 
therefore,  probable  immortality  of  the  thinking  prin- 
ciple within  us,  and  that  the  feeling  which  we  denomi- 
nate conscience,  will,  in  exact  proportion  to  the  de- 
gree in  which  we  cultivate  it,  create  a  still  increasing 

*  Every  judgment  which  we  can  jxiseibly  form,  after  a  careful  examm* 
ation  of  the  operation  of  our  minds,  leads  us  to  conchisions,  perfectly 
irreconcilable  with  the  supposition  of  the  soul's  materiality.  Not  one 
of  the  many  phenomena  of  matter  with  which  we  are  acquainted  has  tlie 
slightest  resemblance  to  those  of  thought  and  consciousness.  But  the 
objection  to  the  materialist  theory  does  not  terminate  here.  Admitting, 
what  it  would  be  a  mere  gratuitous  assumption  to  admit,  that  sensa- 
tion might  possibly  be  the  result  of  mere  corjwreal  organization,  we 
should  still  find  ourselves  unable  to  account  for  that  conviction  of  our  own 
singleness  and  individuality  which  accompanies  every  exertion  of  our 
thoughts.  Why,  we  should  still  a^k,  if  the  soul  is  but  an  assemblage  of 
divisible  parts  mechanically  adjusted,  has  not  every  sensory  or^an  a  dis- 
tinct and  peculiar  consciousness  exclusively  and  incommunicably  its 
own?  What  is  the  one  indivisible  entity  which  presides  over  the  whole  ; 
which  takes  cognizance  of,  and  pronounce  judsrment  upon,  the  various 
animal  and  intellectual  {)erceptions,  and  refers  them  all  to  itself  7  "  So 
in  un  popoloo  in  un  esercito,"  savs  Francesco  Soave,  "  un  sente  fame, 
uno  sete,  e  questi  ha  caldo,  e  quel  ireddo,  ed  altri  ha  dolore  in  una  mano, 
altri  inun  piede  o  nel  petto  o  nel  capo,  chi  diri  mai  che  il  popoloo  I 'esercito 
tanto  insieme  sia  consapevole  delle  sensazioni  che  ha  separatamente 
ciascuno  individuol 

"  Ne  si  pretenda  che  il  paragone  non  valga,  perchfe  ogn'  uomo  e  qui 
separato  da  ogn'  altro,  Imperocche  nel  cervello  ancora,'e  in  qualunque 
Easer  composto,  ogni  minima  parte  ha  un'  esistc'uza  coei  sua  propria,  e 
distinta,  e  separata  d'  ogni  altra,  come  qualunque  uomo  in  un  popofo  o  in 
un'  esercito 

"  Per  qualunque  verso  dunque  si  prenda  un  Esser  composto,  e  o  si 
consideri  nel  suo  tutto,  o  nelle  sue  parti,  h  aempre  assolutamente  impos- 
sibile,  ch' ei  sia  consapevole  a  se  stesso  di  piu  sensazioni  e  percezioni 
simultanee.  E  poich^  noi  di  queste  simultanee  sensazioni  e  percezioni 
a  noi  medesimi  siam  consapevoli  realmenie,  ne  vien  d'  assoluta necessiti 
che  oltre  alia  sosianza  composta  e  materiale  che  forma  il  corpo,  in  noi 
debba  esistere  un'  altra  sosuinza  diversa  affatto  da  quella,  cioi,  non  com- 
posta, ma  pura,  unica,  semplice,  Indivisibile,  che  e  quella  che  chiamiamo 
Qfiima  0  spirito.^' 


WITH   HUMAN  REASON.  j         17 

susceptibility  of  moral  apprehensions,  and  a  conse- 
quent conviction  of  the  imputability  of  our  actions, 
are  propositions,  the  truth  of  which  it  is  impossible 
to  deny.  Man,  therefore,  may  be  said  to  possess  two 
directly  opposite  characters,  each  of  them  in  a  cer- 
tain sense  equally  natural :  the  one,  that  which  exists 
of  itself,  prior  to  any  regular  system  of  moral  culti- 
vation, and  which  is  almost  exclusively  swayed  by 
animal  instinct :  the  other,  that  which  only  waits  to 
be  called  forth  by  habits  of  discipline,  and  which  is 
sure  to  manifest  itself  the  moment  that  circumstances 
become  favourable  for  its  developement.  Now,  there 
assuredly  can  be  no  doubt  which  of  these  two  dissim- 
ilar states  is  most  worthy  of  our  approbation,  and 
most  accordant  with  the  presumed  wisdom  of  Him 
who  placed  us  in  our  present  condition.  The  highest 
possible  elevation  to  which  we  can  attain  under  the 
former,  is  that  of  apparently  inoffensive,  and,  perhaps, 
not  altogether  unserviceable,  members  of  society,  con- 
cealing the  real  selfishness  of  our  disposition  by  the 
conventional  laws  of  decorum,  and  subduing  our 
natural  ferocity  by  a  sense  of  its  inexpediency,  but 
with  a  strict  limitation  of  all  our  hopes  and  fears 
within  the  narrow  limits  of  human  life :  whilst  under 
the  latter,  not  only  every  external  action,  but  also 
every  internal  thought,  is  restrained  by  an  efficient 
control,  and,  instead  of  merely  temporal  and  inferior 
motives  of  conduct,  others  of  a  most  vivid  and  un- 
earthly character  are  substituted,  ample  in  their  scale 
and  character  as  eternity  itself. 

Still,  however,  whilst  such  is  the  general  capability 
of  religious  impression  which  we  derive  from  our 
natural  constitution,  il  by  no  means  follows  from  any 
necessary  deductions  of  our  reasoning  powers,  what 
ought  to  be  the  peculiar  form  and  modification  of  that 
system  of  belief  which  alone  deserves  to  fall  under 
the  hi^h  designation  of  true  religion.  That  which 
has  reference  to  the  system  of  the  whole  universe  and 
to  the  essential  attributes  of  the  Almighty  mind  itself,  is 

2* 


\ 


18 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


19 


li 


f 


obviously  incapable  of  being  measured  by  tbe  mere  hu« 
man  intellect,  taking  for  its  rule  and  standard  the  few 
facts  supplied  by  its  very  limited  experience  in  this 
world.     We  may  follow  up  inference  after  inference, 
cautiously  deducmg  remoter  and  less  palpable  truths 
from  those  primary  ones,  which  are  more  immediately 
the  result  of  our  personal  experience.     But  the  in- 
quiry very  soon  leads  us  beyond  the  utmost  verge  of 
legitimate  human  knowledge.     We  feel,  indeed,  with 
the  most  unhesitating  certainty,  that  the  stake  of  our 
happiness  is  in  some  way  or  other  interwoven  with 
those  undeveloped  mysteries  which  we  strive  to  pene- 
trate, but  we  are  acquainted  with  no  natural  instru- 
ments by  which  we  can  arrive  at  them.     A  powerful 
instinct  urges  us  forward,  but  our  bewildered  reason 
strives  in  vain  to  keep  pace  with  it.     A  correct  sys- 
tem of  religion  again,  having,  as  was  just  now  ob- 
served, reference  to  the  real  circumstances  of  nature, 
it  follows  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  some  one  modi- 
fication of  doctrine  must  be  not  only  superior  to  all 
others,  but,  as  truth  is  self-consistent  and  immutable, 
must  be  exclusive  of  all  others :  that  is  to  say,  it  must 
be  true,  and  all  the  rest,  so  far  as  they  do  not  consti- 
tute an  integral  portion  of  it,  must  be  necessarily 
false.      But  how  are  we  to  arrive  at  the  knowledge 
what  that  one  and  exclusive  modification  of  religion  is? 
This  is  an  inquiry  in  which,  indeed,  our  natural 
intellectual  povvers  must  take  their  share,  as  even  our 
most  vague  conjectures  must  depend  upon  our  reason- 
ing faculties,  in  the  last  resort,  for  whatever  degree 
of  probability  they  may  possess ;  but  still  it  is  per- 
fectly vain  for  us  to  hope  that  the  area  of  our  spiritual 
apprehensions  can  be  widely  extended  by  any  talent 
of  discovery  vested  in  the  human  mind  itself.     Mean- 
while  it  is  impossible  to  infer  that  God  has  given  us 
the  need  of  religious  sentiment,  and  yet  denied  to  us 
the  means  of  gratification.      Grant  the  existence  of 
the  instinct,  and  the  analogy  of  nature  will  assure  us 
tliat  it  was  imparted  for  some  definite  end  and  object. 


H 


Admitting,  then,  as  two  concurrent  truths,  the  fact 
of  the  necessity  of  religion  to  the  human  heart,  with 
that  of  the  insufficiency  of  the  human  understanding 
for  its  effectual  acquisition,  and  we  are  driven,  almost 
of  necessity,  to  the  inference,  that  the  wisdom  and 
goodness  of  our  Maker  would  provide  in  some  mode 
or  other  for  supplying  the  defect.  It  would  seem, 
then,  that  a  communication  from  heaven,  so  far  from 
being  intrinsically  improbable,  is,  on  the  contrary, 
what  we  might  appear  to  have  strong  a  priori  reason 
for  expecting  from  the  mercy  of  Providence ;  whilst 
all  that,  under  such  circumstances,  would  remain  for 
our  intellectual  powers  to  perform  in  their  own  proper 
department,  would  be  to  judge  of  the  evidence  of  such 
revelation  as  that  now  supposed,  by  the  same  rules 
of  probability  derived  from  their  really  accessible 
means  of  knowledge,  which  they  would  apply  to  every 
other  case  of  external  testimony.  This  is  undoubt- 
edly the  course  of  proceeding  which  the  theory  of 
Christianity  requires  at  our  hand ;  and  it  would  be 
difficult  to  show  that,  all  the  circumstances  of  our 
nature  considered,  the  demand  which  it  thus  makes 
upon  our  obedience  and  belief,  is  repugnant  to  the 
dictates  of  sound  reason. 

It  appears  then,  if  the  foregoing  propositions  are 
correct,  that  the  idea  of  the  one  true  religion  neces- 
sarily involves  that  of  "  an  express  revelation  from 
heaven ;"  no  natural  operation  of  the  mind  of  man 
being  capable  of  making  him  acquainted  with  those 
phenomena  of  the  invisible  universe  in  which,  not- 
withstanding, he  has  a  decided  interest;  whilst  the 
facts  thus  revealed,  being  many  of  them  obviously 
beyond  the  compass  of  the  human  faculties  to  appre- 
ciate, are  capable  of  being  rendered  objects  of  sub- 
stantial belief,  not  by  their  own  objective  clearness, 
but  only  by  the  ''evidence^'  with  which  they  may  be 
accompanied.  One  standard,  indeed,  our  minds  un- 
doubtedly possess,  which  is  and  ought  to  be  available 
even  in  the  transcendental  dogmas  of  revelation,  that 


20 


CONSISTENCY  OF  REVELATION 


is  to  say,  our  moral  sense,  such  as  we  have  every 
reason  to  believe  that  it  has  been  implanted  within 
us  by  our  Maker.      No  religion,  under  any  external 
weight  of  testimony  whatever,  can  be  admitted  as  the 
true  one,  the  principles  of  which  are  unequivocally  op- 
posed to  that  faculty.     Many  revealed  dogmas  might, 
and  undoubtedly  would,  be  found  above  its  apprehen- 
sion and  that  of  our  intellectual  powers,  but  none  would 
be  directly  hostile  to  it.     With  this  single  exception 
then— an  exception,  which,  after  all,  we  must  have 
recouiTse  to  only  with  extreme  caution— we  must  be 
prepared   to   receive   that   one  system   of  religious 
belief  which  we  acknowledge  as  authentic,  in  the 
lorm  of  an  external  communication,  and  not  of  any 
discovery  made  by  our  own  reasoning  powers  ;  whilst 
the  evidence  which  will  command  our  assent  to  it, 
will  be  of  that  peculiar  description  which  our  limited 
faculties   are  best  able  to   apprehend,  namely,  the 
accordance  of  the  presumed  revelation  with  the  ac- 
knowledged  constitution  and  necessities  of  our  own 
nature,  the  dignity  and  worthiness  of  its  object,  its 
internal  consistency  with  itself  as  a  whole  and  in  all 
Its  parts,  and  the  confirmatory  attestation  of  those 
persons  whose  actual  position  as  eye-witnesses,  and 
the  known  integrity  of  whose  characters,  put  their 
assertions  beyond  the  reach  of  suspicion. 

Admitting,  then,  that  there  exists  somewhere  an 
authentic  revelation  of  the  Divine  will  (and  if  we 
deny  that  fact  we  deny  every  one  of  the  fore<'oint' 
propositions,)  the  question  to  be  resolved  is  simply 
this,  "  which  of  all  the  modes  of  opinion  which  have 
assumed  the  name,  is  that  revelation  ?"  Now  it  is 
certainly  not  assuming  too  much,  to  assert  that 
Uiristianity  alone  has  the  slightest  claim  to  that 
character.  The  various  religious  opinions  of  man- 
kmd  are  matters  of  history.  The  events  which  first 
suggested  the  leading  and  peculiar  principle  of  each, 
which  fostered  their  growth,  and  gave  them  that  hold 
upon  the  minds  of  their  supporters  which  in  their 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


21 


I 


i 


several  degrees  they  have  respectively  possessed,  are 
all  such  as  may  be  readily  accounted  for  by  consider- 
ing the  peculiar  habits  of  the  societies  in  which  they 
severally  arose,  the  worldly  interests  or  national  pre- 
dilections which  they  served  to  cherish,  the  then  ex- 
isting state  of  comparative  ignorance  or  literature, 
and  often  the  mistaken  theories  respecting  the  struc- 
ture of  the  material  universe,  which  subsequent  dis- 
coveries in  science  have  effectually  overthrown.  Such 
is  undoubtedly  the  case  with  every  modification  of 
religious  belief  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  Chris- 
tianity alone  excepted.  Every  distinguishing  charac- 
teristic, on  the  contrary,  of  this  latter  religion,  is 
marked  with  peculiarities  preeminently  its  own.  It 
is  referrible  to  no  natural  causes  with  which  we  are 
acquainted.  Its  first  appearance  was  like  that  of  a 
comet  entering  our  planetary  system.  We  can 
neither  surmise  from  whence  it  comes,  nor  speculate 
upon  the  far  remote  regions  with  which  its  destinies 
are  connected ;  but  we  look  up  to  it  with  awe,  and, 
in  spite  of  our  ignorance,  feel  a  satisfied  assurance 
that  its  operations  are  amon^  those  which  are  under 
the  superintendence  of  infinite  Wisdom.  Thai,  so 
far  from  having  the  way  prepared  for  it  by  the  previous 
habits  of  society,  or  by  its  accordance  with  human 
notions  and  passions,  it,  on  the  contrary,  made  its 
way  in  direct  opposition  to  national  prejudices,  phi- 
losophical theories,  and  above  all,  to  the  natural 
sensuality  and  self-love  of  the  human  heart : — that  it 
professed  to  be  supported  by  the  most  miraculous 
deviations  from  the  ordinary  course  of  events,  and  yet 
gained  implicit  credit  from  persons  who  could  have  no 
interest  in  professing  their  belief  in  it  if  they  knew  it 
to  be  false,  and  who,  had  it  been  false,  had  undoubt- 
edly the  means  of  its  refutation  in  their  own  hands : — 
that  commencing  from  apparently  the  humblest  of 
all  humble  beginnings,  possessed  of  no  temporal 
authority,  and  arrayed  in  none  of  our  earthly  notions 
of  "  beauty  that  we  should  desire  it,"  it,  notwithstand- 


1 


22 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


23 


ing,  spread  rapidly  over  the  whole  civilized  world, 
and  impressed  an  entirely  new  character  upon  human 
society  :— that  during  the  space  of  eighteen  centuries 
it  has  sustained  every  shock  which  the  violence  of  its 
persecutors,  the  calumnies  and  arguments  of  its  most 
inveterate  opponents,  or  the  vices  and  superstitions 
pf  its  less  informed  followers  could  inflict  upon  it, 
and  that,  at  this  moment,  it  stands  entire ;  assented 
to  in  all  points  by  a  vast  number  of  men  of  the  most 
enlightened  minds,  and  by  none  more  than  by  those 
who  have  most  sedulouslv  examined  its  evidences: — 
that,  be  it  true,  or  be  it  false,  it  is  an  undoubted  fact, 
that  the  most  valuable  members  of  society,  the  most 
perfect  specimens  of  the  human  race,  have  been  those 
who  have  made  its  doctrines  their  rule  of  faith,  its 
injunctions  the  guide  of  their  practice  :— all  these  are 
points  which  the  Christian  believer  may  unhesitat- 
ingly assert  as  incontrovertible  truths,  and  which,  per- 
haps, few  professed  sceptics  would  have  the  hardi- 
hood to  controvert.      Why,  then,  having  succeeded 
thus  far,  has  it  not  done  still  more  ?      To  what  are 
we  to  attribute  the  slowness  with  which,  in  latter 
times,  this  singular  religion  has  made  and  continues 
to  make  its  way  through  the  world  ?     Why,  at  every 
step  of  its  progress,  is  it  opposed  and  impeded,  not 
merely  by  the  violence  of  those  passions  which  it  is 
its  professed  object  to  eradicate  or  control,  but  occa- 
sionally also  by  the  more  plausible  hostility  of  men 
of  seeming  candour,  of  great  literary  acquirements, 
and  of  apparently  sound  morals  ? 

This  is  a  question  which  it  is  natural  to  put,  and  to 
which  it  may  appear  difficult  to  return  a  satisfactory 
answer.  That  men  of  enlightened  minds  should 
despise  a  sensual,  and  detest  a  selfish  or  cruel  code  of 
religion,  seems  natural  and  just.  But  that  they  should 
assume  a  degree  of  merit  in  traducing  the  most  single- 
minded  and  self-denying  of  all  practical  rules  of  c'on- 
duct,  and  that  they  should  coalesce  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  into  disrepute  the  only  seemingly  well  au- 


I 

I 

i 


thenticated  revelation  from  heaven  which  would  raise 
us  above  the  earth,  and  hold  out  the  prospect  of  a  happy 
immortality,  is  a  phenomenon  which  appears  at  first 
sight  perfectly  inexplicable.  To  discuss  this  subject, 
and  to  show  that  the  blame  is  not  justly  attributable 
to  any  want  of  reasonableness  in  the  religion  itself, 
will  be  the  object  of  the  following  remarks.  Perhaps 
it  may  appear  in  the  sequel,  that  this  very  species  of 
hostility  which  Christianity  has  met  with,  is  to  be 
considered  among  the  strongest  proofs  of  its  unearthly 
origin.  Most  assuredly  it  is  the  very  kind  of  recep- 
tion which  Scripture  has  expressly  declared  that  it 
would  receive  from  the  passions  and  prejudices  of 
mankind. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Of  the  Prejudices  commonly  entertained  by  Men  of  the  World 

against  Revelation. 

It  is  not  necessary,  in  order  to  account  for  the  rejec- 
tion of  Christianity  by  many  persons  of  otherwise 
cultivated  minds,  and  by  a  very  considerable  portion 
of  mere  men  of  the  world,  to  suppose  that  they  are 
conscious  to  themselves  of  any  calculated  motives 
of  hostility,  or  any  unusual  laxity  of  morals.  It 
is  enough  that  we  know  from  Scripture  and  from 
experience,  that  the  natural  heart  of  man  is  prone  to 
self-indulgence  ;  and  as  such  is  averse  from  the  labour 
of  a  painful  investigation  of  abstract  and  mysterious 
subjects,  especially  where  the  remuneration  of  that 
labour  is  professedly  not  immediate,  but  the  deferred 
and  uncertain  allotment  of  a  future  state  of  existence. 
The  instinctive  wants  of  the  body  are  immediate  in 
their  demands  upon  our  attention,  and  are  clamorous 
if  neglected ;  they  require  no  painful  tension  of  the 
understanding  to  perceive  their  object,  nor  any  great 


u 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


ingenuity  to  attain  to  their  gratification.    There  is 
an  obvious  and   palpable  connexion  of  cause   and 
effect  between  the  pursuit  of  the  thing  sought  for, 
the  acquisition  of  it,  and  the  enjoyment  resulting 
from  its  possession.     And  what  is  thus  true  of  our 
corporeal  pleasures,  taken  in  their  lowest  stage,  is 
still  no  less  true  of  them  in  their  highest,  however 
plausibly  they  may  be  disguised  by  the  refinements 
of  civihzation,  and  even  elevated  by  their  association 
with  philosophy  and  science.     Immediate  fruition  in 
some  shape  or  other,  is  equally  the  aim  of  all.     To 
persons  in  this  disposition  of  mind,  religion,  with 
its  long  catalogue  of  abstruse  propositions,  of  thin 
abstractions,  of  immediate  privations,  and  deferred 
retributions,   necessarily   comes    as  an   unwelcome 
intruder.     It  never  can  be  the  case  that  they  should 
turn  willingly  from  pursuits  at  once  so  apparently 
natural  and   so   attractive,    to   the   impalpable   and 
obscure   speculations  of    theology,  more   especially 
when,  in  addition  to  the  more  vivid  impression  made 
upon  the  imagination  by  temporal  objects,  and  the 
indolence   which   shuns   all   presumed  unnecessary 
inquiry,   the   heavy  price  is  to   be  paid  of  a  seli- 
denial,  not  only  in  the  case  of  confessedly  degrading 
pleasures,    but    in   that   also   of   those    whfch   the 
generahty  of  mankind  deem  perfectly  inoffensive. 
This  observation,  it  is  true,  seems  to  apply  rather  to 
the  study  of  religion  in  general  than  to  that  of  the 
Christian  revelation  exclusively.     But  it  should  be 
remembered,  that  if  we  once  give  up  the  theory  of  a 
direct  revelation,  and  leave  each  person  to  the  peculiar 
creed  suggested  by  his  own  moral  sense,  every  man's 
religious  speculations  become,  from   that  moment, 
rather  a  matter  of  amusement  than  of  painful  coercion. 
The  ingenuity  of  self-love  will  invariably,  in  such 
circumstances,  adapt  its  speculations  to  its  own  tastes 
and  predilections,  and  will  as  assuredly  contrive  to 
suggest  some  excuse  for  the  indulgence  of  the  pas- 
sions  as  the  pure  code  of  Christianity  is  inflexible  in 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


25 


restraining  them.  The  real  feeling  of  repugnance 
begins  then,  and  then  only,  when,  instead  of  pursuing 
our  own  visionary  caprices,  and  misnaming  them 
religion,  we  are  peremptorily  required  to  adopt  a 
system  of  belief  external  to  ourselves  in  its  origin, 
uncompromising  in  its  injunctions,  and  unearthly  in 
its  remunerations.  There  is  a  point  of  repulsion  at 
the  very  outset,  in  this  latter  case,  which  discourages 
any  mutual  attempt  at  approximation  in  notions  and 
feelings  thus  little  in  unison.  It  matters  not  by  what 
weight  of  external  or  internal  evidence  such  a  creed 
may  chance  to  be  supported,  or  how  perfectly  accord- 
ant its  data  may  be  with  the  ultimate  conclusions  of 
sound  philosophy.  In  a  case  of  this  description  the 
average  of  worldly  men  make  their  election,  not  from 
deep  and  painful  calculation,  but  from  the  impulse  of 
the  moment;  and,  having  once  taken  their  station 
with  this  or  that  party,  seek  to  tranquillize  their 
consciences  and  lull  their  fears,  by  occupying  a  kind 
of  neutral  ground  between  vague  admissions  and 
practical  unbelief;  while  those  of  more  courage,  or 
more  acute  talents,  take  the  bolder  step  of  becoming 
at  once  the  assailants,  and  attacking  the  credibility 
of  the  doctrines,  the  obligations  of  which  they  would 
evade. 

Nothing  can  be  more  obvious  than  that  any  reli- 
gion, however  true,  and  even  in  a  certain  sense  demon- 
strably such,  would  have  little  chance  of  making 
very  numerous  converts,  if  examined  only  in  the 
perfunctory  and  prejudiced  manner  now  described. 
Few  truths  are  so  attractive  at  their  first  aspect  as 
they  appear  eventually  upon  further  discussion;  and 
of  all  truths,  those  of  theology  are  the  least  so.  From 
first  to  last  it  involves  a  tissue  of  seeming  paradoxes, 
into  the  admission  of  which  we  are  eventually  driven, 
not  so  much  from  the  light  by  which  they  are  them- 
selves surrounded,  as  by  t-he  anomalies,  the  contra- 
dictions, the  impossibilities,  the  total  degradation  of 
our  best  and  noblest  feelings,  which  would  be  the 


26 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


27 


necessary  consequence  of  their  rejection.  We  cannot, 
therefore,  be  surprised  that  truths  of  this  kind,  if 
injudiciously  stated,  or  indolently  discussed,  must 
often  fail  of  carrying  conviction  !  Nothing  can  be 
easier  than  to  make  out  a  plausible  case  against 
isolated  portions  of  an  intricate  and  mysterious  theory 
with  auditors  who,  even  if  they  possess  natural  talent 
sufficient  for  the  purpose,  have,  at  all  events,  never 
taken  the  trouble  to  examine  its  consistency  as  a 
whole,  and  in  the  minds  of  a  greater  part  of  whom 
a  bias  in  the  opposite  direction  may,  without  any 
breach  of  charity,  be  presumed  to  exist :  nor  need  we 
accordmgly  be  surprised,  however  we  may  be  grieved, 
to  see  a  laugh  raised  against  the  supposed  weakness 
and  superstition  of  speculative  men  by  persons  who 
have  never  been  taught  to  acknowledge  any  higher 
standard  of  morals  than  that  of  social  expediency,  or 
any  wish  beyond  that  of  the  gratification  of  the  selfish 
passions  of  pleasure,  avarice,  or  ambition. 

Such,  however,  is  infidelity  under  its  most  common 
aspect.  In  this  deplorable  stage  of  it,  the  first  attempt 
at  cure  must  be  made  by  the  application  of  moral 
rather  than  of  intellectual  medicines.  Tlie  very 
simplest  effort  of  the  attention  is  wanting,  and  that 
IS  to  be  roused  by  alarming  the  fears  and  appealing 
to  the  consciences  of  the  respective  parties  before  we 
can  have  any  chance  of  success  from  argumentative 

-    discussion.     It  is,  therefore,  to  unbelief  of  a  higher 
and  more  intellectual  order  that  any  more  elaborate 

A  exposition  of  the  Christian  evidences,  as  establishing 
the  reasonableness  and  consistency  of  revelation^ 
must  be  addressed.  Now  common  candour  obliges 
us  to  admit,  that  acute  reasoners,  and  humanly 
speaking,  amiable  men,  have  undoubtedly  existed 
from  time  to  time,  who,  having  as  they  thought 
impartially  examined  the  arguments  for  arid  against 
^.^istianity,  have  decided  upon  unbelief  as  the  least 
difficulty  of  the  two;  and  who,  without  entertaining 
any  violent  hostility  against  it  as  a  system  of  opinions, 


have  still  asserted   the  incurable  ignorance  of  the 
human  mind  upon  those  mysterious  topics,  and  jus- 
tified,  accordingly,   their   unwillingness   to   inquire 
further  by  the  assumption  that  all  inquiry  is  mani- 
festly useless.   In  order,  therefore,  to  meet  opponents 
of  this  description,  it  may  be  desirable  to  examine 
how  far    their   peculiar   class  of  objections   weigh 
against  the   doctrines    of   Christianity   exclusively, 
considering  them,  as  in  fact  they  are,  a  superaddition 
to  the  fundamental  principles  ot  natural  religion  ;  or, 
on  the  other  hand,  how  far   they  may  be  equally 
valid  against  every  modification  of  religion  whatever. 
Should  the  latter  appear  to  be  the  case,  it  would 
follow,  either  that  their  argument  involves  a  fallacy, 
as  attributing  exclusively  to  the  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ  an  objection  which  applies  equally  elsewhere, 
or  it  would  prove  more  than  themselves  intend,  by 
showing  that  religion  of  every  description,  that  of 
pure  unmixed  theism  not  excepted,  is  a  sentiment 
alien  to  our  nature.     Few  professed  infidels,  who 
have  not  discarded  all  the  restraints  of  conscience, 
would,  perhaps,  be  hardy  enough   to  venture   this 
latter  assertion.     Yet  scarcely  any  of  them  have  had 
the  candour  and  good  sense  to  remark,  that  by  far  the 
greater  number   of  attacks,  which  they  profess  to 
direct  solely  against  Christianity,  strike  directly,  if 
any  where,  at  the  basis  of  all  religion  whatever.  This 
confusion  of  ideas  it  is  necessary  to  point  out  and 
correct,  if  we  would  discuss  the  peculiar  evidences 
and  merits  of  the  Gospel  accurately  and  fairly. 


2S 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


29 


V 


CHAPTER  m. 

Of  the  dmculties  which  attach  in  common  tc  Natural,  no  leat  than 
Christianif  ^        '^ '  ""^  °-^  ^^^"^  "'^'^^  ^^^^"^  exclusively  to 

Christianity,  then,  maybe  contemplated  in  two 
distinct  points  of  view,  both  of  them  in  their  respec- 
tive sense  equally  correct.    It  may  be  considered  as  a 
who  e  and  entire  system  of  theology,  having  natural 
theology  for  its  basis,  and  revelation  for  its  crown 
and  capital ;  or  it  may  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  a 
corrective  of  the  apparent  anomalies,  and  as  explana- 
tory of  the  many  difficulties,  which  perplex  every 
the  most  rational  theory  of  belief,  in  the  absence  of  a 
distinct  revelation.  According  to  the  former  mode  of 
seeing  it,  natural  religion  will  seem  to  be  concurrent 
with  It,  and  to  constitute  an  integral  portion  of  it  • 
whilst,  according  to  the  latter,  it  will  in  some  measure 
be  opposed  to  it.     This  distinction,  we  repeat,  has 
not  been  sufficiently  remarked  by  those  persons  who 
have  assailed  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.    Professing 
themselves   to   be  sincere   Theists,   they  have   still 
directed  their  assault  so  vaguely  and  indiscriminately 
as  to  cut  away  from  under  their  own  feet  the  very 
support   upon   which   they  have  taken  their  stand. 
1  hat  religion,  including  under  that  term  the  essential 
doctrine  of  an  all-wise  and  all-benevolent  Ruler  of 
the  universe,  and  of  the  soul's  immortality,  is  natural 
to  cultivated  and  civilized  man,  they  assert  no  less 
confidently  than  ourselves.     But  though  it  is  easy  to 
make  this  admission,  and  to  fancy  that  we  cordially 
assent  to  it,  it  is  by  no  means  easy  to  anticipate  all 
the  remote  and  perplexing  inferences,  which,  if  traced 
systematically,  step  by  step,  necessarily  result  from  it. 
Ihose   two   main   principles  once  granted,   almost 
every  difficulty,  which  has  been  invidiously  alleged 


f 


I. 

i 


i» 


as  specially  impugning  the  theory  of  the  Gospel, 
immediately  assails  the  consistent  Deist  in  the  very 
commencement  of  his  inquiry.  The  beautiful  me- 
chanism of  the  universe  evidently  announces  the 
existence  of  an  intelligent  and  benevolent  Author. 
Yet  whence  did  that  Almighty  Author  derive  his  own 
eternal  existence  ?  Until  the  rational  Theist  can  see 
his  way  through  this  primary  difficulty,  it  is  in  vain 
that  he  argues  against  the  assumed  improbability  of 
those  facts  superadded  by  revelation  to  the  no  less 
inexplicable  religion  of  nature.  Suppose  this  great 
riddle  once  satisfactorily  solved;  another  equally 
perplexing  immediately  presents  itself.  He  who  is 
confessedly  the  great  Cause,  and  author  of  all  things, 
would  appear  to  be  necessarily  impassive  in  his 
nature ;  since  it  seems  impossible  to  suppose  that 
any  created  object  can  be  endued  with  such  qualities 
as  to  react  forcibly,  and  by  external  agency,  upon  the 
volition  of  its  own  Creator.  Yet  once  admit  this 
seemingly  obvious  conclusion,  and  all  those  very  moral 
attributes  of  the  Deity,  which  entitle  him  to  our  love 
and  reverence,  and  which  the  Theist  professes  to 
assert  as  pertinaciously  as  the  Christian,  fall  imme- 
diately to  the  ground.  An  impassive  and  imperturba- 
ble Supreme  Being  would,  in  reality,  differ  little  from 
the  nominal  deity  of  Epicurus.  A  universe  might, 
according  to  sucli  an  hypothesis,  exist,  (provided, 
indeed,  that  the  very  supposition  of  a  creation 
emanating  from  a  Creator  thus  isolated  from  external 
objects,  does  not  involve  a  contradiction)  but  the 
Almighty  mind  could  not,  in  such  a  case,  be  imagined 
to  exercise  any  moral,  and  scarcely  any  physical, 
superintendence  over  it.  Such  a  being  might  be 
presumed  to  be  necessarily  occupied  solely  in  the 
contemplation  of  his  own  infinite  perfections,  and  to 
be  incapable  of  all  sympathy  with  us  and  our  con- 
cerns. Yet  the  doctrine  of  a  Creator,  thus  indifferent 
to  the  welfare  of  his  creatures,  is  too  monstrous  to 
meet  with  the  patronage  of  any  reasonable  sceptic. 

3* 


I 


30 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


31 


« 


How  then  does  he- make  his  way  through  this  seem- 
inglv  inexplicahle  difficulty  ?  Merely  by  the  fact  that, 
whilst  his  metaphysical  theories  suggest  one  thing, 
his  own  moral  sense,  and  all  his  better  and  sublimer 
feelings,  inculcate  the  directly  opposite  conclusion. 

The  sceptic,  in  the  next  place,  admits  the  doctrine 
of  the  soul's  immortality,  because  without  that  ad- 
mission, under  the  present  unequal  distribution  of 
worldly  prosperity,  religion,  itself  were  an  empty 
name.  Yet  press  him  with  the  consequences  of  this 
assertion,  ask  him  if  the  souls  of  the  virtuous  and  the 
wicked  are  alike  immortal,  what  must  be  the  distinc- 
tion between  their  respective  allotments  in  a  future 
slate  of  existence  ?  and  he  shelters  himself  under  the 
general  plea  of  ignorance  ;  in  other  words,  he  shrinks 
from  following  the  inquiry  into  all  its  consequences, 
which,  if  so  pursued,  would  necessarily  lead  him  to 
some  conclusion  not  very  remote  from  that  which  he 
charges  as  a  foremost  blemish  upon  the  Gospel. 

Again,  the  existence  of  evil  in  all  its  forms,  whether 
moral,  physical,  or  intellectual,  is  an  enigma  which 
every  Theist  is  bound  to  reconcile  with  his  own  self- 
styled  rational  views  of  religion,  or  to  confess  that  the 
difficulties  accompanying  any  peculiar  modification  of 
belief  do  not  necessarily  afford  a  ground  for  rejectino' 
the  evidences  upon  which  it  may  chance  to  be  built. 
Whence  originates  the  acknowledged  inequality  in 
the  dispensation  of  the  good  and  evil  things  of  this 
life  ?  Why  did  an  almighty  and  all-benevolent  Being 
(for  such  a  Deity  he  professes  to  acknowledge)  check 
the  operations  of  his  goodness,  and  deal  out  happiness 
in  such  scanty,  pain  and  imperfection  in  such  ample 
proportions?     Why  was  the  human  mind  endowed 
with  such  gigantic  powers  of  apprehension,  such  high 
and  indefinite  aspirations,  whilst  the  circumstances  in 
which  it  is  placed  are  such  as  to  cause  a  vast  waste 
of  unemployed  faculties,  and  to  suggest  little  more 
than  abortive  schemes  for  the  attainment  of  what 
would  seem  imaginary  good  ? 


U 


What,  again,  does  natural  religion  teach  as  a  solu- 
tion of  that  inextricable  mystery,  the  compatibility  of 
free  will  with  the  operation  of  external  motives,  and 
of  God's  foreknowledge,  the  ineffectual  discussion  of 
which  has  brought  unmerited  obloquy  upon  Chris- 
tianity, as  though  the  difficultv  had  originated  from 
that  source,  or  that  the  denial  of  revelation  would 
contribute  any  thing  towards  its  removal  ? 

The  rationalist  may,  indeed,  shut  his  eyes,  and 
choose  not  to  see,  or  he  may  otherwise  occupy  his 
thoughts  and  may  really  be  not  aware  of  the  dark- 
ness involved  in  the  foregoing  questions,  but  most 
certainly  that  darkness  is  as  old  as  philosophy  itself. 
If  the  Christian  is  more  perplexed  by  discussions  of 
this  nature  than  the  mere  Theist,  it  is  only  because 
from  the  tremendous  importance  of  his  creed,  his 
mind  has  been  rendered  more  anxious  and  contem- 
plative, that  reflection  has  become  a  more  momentous 
duty,  and  the  current  of  his  thoughts,  in  consequence, 
been  more  systematically  turned  in  that  direction. 
True,  indeed,  it  is,  that  the  mysteries  here  alluded  to 
are  far  from  comprehending  all  that  are  involved  in 
the  admission  of  the  truth  of  Christianity.  All  that 
is  now  asserted  is,  that  it  is  both  unfair  and  illogical 
to  lay  exclusively  to  the  charge  of  that  peculiar  form 
of  belief,  perplexities  which  it  shares  in  common 
with  every  other  modification  of  theistical  inquiry, 
and  from  which  the  adoption  of  the  gross  absurdities 
and  inconsistencies  of  even  Atheism  itself  would 
scarcely  afford  us  a  shelter.  Without,  then,  pretend- 
ing to  deny  that  the  Gospel  revelation  has  difficulties 
really  and  specially  its  own,  we  would  merely  urge 
that  it  is  those  specific  and  peculiar  difficulties,  and  no 
other,  which  suggest  a  legitimate  subject  of  discussion 
to  the  sceptic.  By  a  sober  investigation  of  them, 
then,  let  it  be  tried.  The  result,  we  are  satisfied, 
will  be,  that  the  additional  enigmas  which  it  pro- 
poses, beyond  those  attaching  to  natural  religion,  are 
not  more  in  number  than  might  be  fairly  anticipated 


38 


CONSISTENCY  OF  REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


33 


from  the  wider  survey  of  the  Divine  arrangements 
which  it  affords  to  our  minds,  and  the  consequent 
necessity  for  the  supply  of  new  matter  for  wonder 
which  this  last  supposition  involves.  We  may  add, 
also,  that  if  the  perplexities  which  Christianity  may 
thus  appear  to  have  superadded  to  the  religion  of 
nature  be  found,  as  assuredly  many  of  them  will  be 
found,  to  explain  and  remove  some  of  those  which 
previously  encumbered  the  principles  of  Theism ;  such 
explanations  ought  in  fairness  to  be  taken,  so  far  as 
they  may  go,  as  a  set-off  against  the  new  difficulties 
thus  introduced,  and  as  a  diminution  of  their  total 
amount.  This  act  of  justice  infidelity  will,  perhaps, 
never  be  found  to  have  voluntarily  conceded,  but  it  is 
obviously  claimable  upon  every  sound  principle  of 
argument.  Let  us  illustrate  this  observation  by 
what,  we  know,  occurs  every  day  in  the  pursuits  of 
experimental  philosophy. 

If  we  might  venture  to  speculate  upon  what  might 
be  presumed  a  priori  to  be  the  probable  effect  of 
sudden  illumination  of  the  human  mind,  on  the 
subject  of  the  ^reat  principles  of  religion,  we  should 
naturally  be  disposed  to  expect  a  result  perfectly 
analogous  with  that  which  we  know  from  experience 
accompanies  every  similar  enlargement  of  our  appre- 
hension of  the  objects  of  physical  science :  that  is  to 
say,  the  mind  would  gain  a  step  in  advance,  and 
occupy  a  wider  area  of  knowledge  than  before,  but 
at  the  same  time  the  concurrent  effect  would  be  that 
whilst  some  preexisting  difficulties  would  be  par- 
tially, and  others  perhaps  satisfactorily,  explained, 
the  accumulation  of  new  facts,  thus  occasioned,  would 
necessarily  bring  with  it  an  accession  of  perplexity, 
of  which  we  were  not  aware  in  the  earlier  stage  of 
our  progress.  In  the  present  state  of  the  human 
faculties,  one  source  of  doubt  is  removed  only  by  the 
inevitable  introduction  of  another.  A  phenomenon 
in  chymistry  or  in  natural  history  may  be  explained 
by  the  discovery  of  some  hitherto  unknown  principle, 


but  that  fresh  discovery,  whilst  it  serves  as  a  key  to 
unlock  former  subjects  of  doubt,  is  itself  quite  as 
perplexing  as  those  which  it  has  removed.  It  is 
impossible  td  deny  that  Newton  has  truly  explained 
the  phenomena  of  the  planetary  system,  by  referring 
them  to  the  universal  law  of  gravitation.  But  this 
discovery  has  only  put  us  in  possession  of  one  link 
the  more  in  the  eternal  chain  of  consequences,  so 
that,  instead  of  asking  any  longer  what  it  is  which 
retains  the  heavenly  bodies  in,  and  gives  regularity 
to,  their  respective  courses,  our  question  now  is,  what 
is  the  principle  which  gives  to  all  matter  whatever, 
its  power  of  mutual  and  reciprocal  attraction.  The 
subject  matter  of  our  knowledge  is  increased,  but  our 
final  ignorance  remains  the  same.  Our  intellectual 
horizon  shifts  as  we  advance,  but  the  same  mass  of 
clouds  hangs  to  the  last  on  its  extreme  verge. 

With  regard,  then,  to  the  admitted  difficulties  of 
Christianity,  it  may  be  confidently  asserted,  that  in 
this  respect  the  sceptic  does  not  argue  the  matter 
fairly.  He  assumes  that  a  Divine  revelation  ought 
necessarily  to  operate  as  a  universal  solution  of  pre- 
existing doubt,  whereas  the  infinite  and  stupendous 
nature  of  the  problems  with  which  it  has  to  do,  and 
the  admitted  fact  of  the  very  limited  faculties  of  the 
human  mind,  ought  naturally  to  have  suggested  to 
him  the  directly  opposite  conclusion.  The  idea  of  a 
religion  without  mystery  involves,  in  fact,  little  less 
than  a  contradiction  of  terms.  The  science  of  theo- 
logy, we  repeat,  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  that 
course  of  inquiry  by  which,  availing  ourselves  of 
every  clue  which  Providence  has  placed  in  our  hands 
for  trie  solution  of  the  enigma,  we  strive  to  account 
for  the  existence  of  those  phenomena  in  the  material 
and  intellectual  creation  which  appear  to  us  at  first 
sight  unworthy  of  the  presumed  wisdom  in  which  all 
things,  as  a  wnole,  are  admitted  to  have  been  formed. 
Now  if  the  whole  course  of  this  inquiry,  from  the 
very  first  surmises  of  human  reason  to  the  profoundest 


i 


.  ■'■■■■- '~-—  m^-i^^ 


1 


34 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


35 


dogmas  of  revelation,  is  necessarily  one  of  embarrass- 
ment, it  is  obviously  unscientific  and  unphilosophical 
to  adopt   a  theory  so  far  only  as   it  embraces  the 
maximum  of  perplexity,  and  to  become  indolent  and 
incredulous  at  the  precise  point  where  something  like 
an  explanatory  process  appears  to  be  commencing. 
This,  however,  is  really  the  line  pursued  by  those 
persons  who,  having,  as  they  imagine,  from  convic- 
tion, admitted  the  great  principles  of  natural  religion, 
are  willing  to  take  their  final  stand  there,  and  advance 
no  further.    To  the  real  consistent  Atheist,  of  course, 
such  arguments  as  the  present  do  not  apply.     Con- 
tradictions and  anomalies  are  the  strong  holds   in 
which   he   loves   to  entrench  himself.      The   more 
absurdities  he  imagines  that  he  discovers,  the  more 
unassailable  his  creed  becomes.     The  defect  of  his 
theory  is,  not  that  seeming  oversights  are  traceable  in 
the  established  order  of  things,  but  that  they  are  not 
to  be  found  in  sufficient  quantities  to  make  out  his 
case.     But  the  Theist  commits  the   paralogism  of 
admitting  all  the  difficulties  of  belief  whilst  he  rejects 
those  antagonist   and   remedial  propositions  which 
would  go  far  to  remove  them.  Take,  for  instance,  the 
perplexing  fact  already  alluded  to,  of  the  existence  of 
evil.     Considered   as  an  integral  portion  of  mere 
rational  theology,  it  presents  nothing  but  unmixed 
embarrassment.      Adopt   the    solution    afforded   by 
Christianity,  and,  though  the  original  question  re- 
mains unanswered,  why  a  wise  Providence  has  not 
proceeded  at  once  more  directly  to  its  object,  but  has 
made  ignorance  and  personal  suffering  a  necessary 
step  towards  the  attainment  of  ultimate  good;  still 
it  follows,  as  a  self-evident  truth,  that  if  our  present 
life  be,  as  Scripture  asserts  that  it  is,  a  state  of  pro- 
bation, the  existence  of  temporary  evil  is  implied  as 
a  necessary  constituent  of  the  operation  intended  to 
be  wrought.     Thus  much,  at  all  events,  the  original 
difficulty  is  diminished.     What  the  sceptic  does  not, 
and  will  not  see  in  this,  and  in  otlier  similar  cases  is, 


that  the  theory  of  revelation  does  not  pretend  to 
account  for  those  primary  facts  which  are  evidently 
beyond  the  grasp  of  our  apprehension  to  embrace, 
but  that  it  suggests  merely  a  practical  rule  of  life, 
with  a  superaddition  of  fresh  subsequent  positions 
which,  if  we  are  willing  to  take  the  former  one  for 
granted,  will,  in  some  measure  reconcile  their  con- 
tradictions, and  establish  their  compatibility  with  the 
arrangements  of  Divine  wisdom. 

Considered  in  this  point  of  view,  many  circum- 
stances in  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  which  when 
considered   by  themselves  would  present  only  un- 
mixed wonder,  and  which  accordingly  have  ever  been 
prominent  marks  for  the  assaults  of  infidelity,  are,  in 
reality,  so  far  from  adding  to  the  general  mass  of 
improbabilities  which  meet  the  theologian  in  every 
step  of  his  course,  that  they  leave  the  general  ques- 
tion far  more  clear  than  they  found  it.     To  demon- 
strate this  fact,  will  be  the  object  of  the  following 
pages.  He  assuredly  must  know,  indeed,  little  of  the 
impenetrable   darkness   which    surrounds   us,   who 
would  hope  in  this  life  to  reduce  the  simplest  propo- 
sitions, even  of  physical  science,  much  less  the  tran- 
scendental dogmas  of  theology,  into  the  form  of  self- 
evident  truths.  All  that  any  exposition  of  the  Christian 
evidences  can  presume  to  effect,  is  merely  to  show 
that  revelation  accords,  not  with  our  abstract  theories 
and  capricious  surmises  of  what  we  choose  to  assume 
that  God's  creation  ought  to  have  been,  but  with 
what  experience  tells  us  that  it  actually  is.     That  it 
does  so  accord  in  all  points;   that  the  undisguised 
and  unequivocal  admission  of  the  actual  existence  of 
what  we  have  ventured  to  call  the  seeming  anomalies 
in  the  constitution  of  the  universe  is  one  of  its  fun- 
damental propositions,  and  that  without  attempting 
to  explain  them  away,  it  affords  the  best  solution  of 
the  difficulties  they  suggest,  which  is  to  be  found  in 
the  annals  of  religious  philosophy,  is  all  that  we  can 
in  fairness  be  called  upon  to  show.    Much,  after  all, 


M 


36 


CONSISTENCY   OF  REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


37 


must  be  left  to  that  principle  of  faith  which,  like  its 
sister  virtue,  charity  towards  man,  "believeth  all 
things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things."  But 
tliat  very  residue  of  incurable  ignorance,  against 
which  in  this  world  we  find  it  fruitless  to  struggle,  is 
among  the  strongest  pledges  afforded  us  by  Provi- 
dence, that  our  present  allotment  is  not  intended  to 
be  final. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Of  the  Necessity,  as  demon  Ptrated  by  experience,  of  the  existence  qf 
a  written  Revelation  of  the  Divine  Will. 

If,  then,  the  view  now  taken  of  the  question  at 
issue  between  the  defenders  and  the  assailants  of 
Christianity  be  correct,  it  will  appear,  not  only  that 
that  sublime  theory  is  not  in  itself  accountable  for 
the  facts  which  experience  has  shown  to  form  part  of 
the  existing  order  of  things,  but,  on  the  contrary,  that 
the  admitted  existence  of  those  facts  gives  a  substan- 
tial probability  to  that  theory,  which  it  would  not 
otherwise  possess.  That  such  is  the  case,  will  be 
more  clearly  shown  by  considering,  separately  and 
distinctly,  the  several  component  parts  of  the  Chris- 
tian system,  and  showing  that,  however  improbable, 
a  priori  and  humanly  speaking,  each  of  them  may 
appear,  when  viewed  in  the  form  of  detached  proposi- 
tions, they  present  themselves  almost  in  the  light  of 
necessary  remedial  processes,  the  moment  that  we 
consider  them  with  reference  to  those  startling  posi- 
tions of  natural  religion,  the  certainty  of  which,  by  no 
subterfuge  of  the  reason,  we  are  capable  of  evading  or 
denying.  To  begin,  then,  with  what  must  at  the  first 
point  of  view  be  considered  as  an  incident  little  likely 
to  be  expected  in  the  arrangements  of  Providence, 
namely,  the  necessity  of  the  communication  of  a  dis- 


tinct written  revelation  of  the  Divine  will,  to  crea- 
tures whom  their  Maker  has  already  endued  with  a 
moral  sense  and  considerable  reasoning  powers. 

We  readily  admit,  that,  were  the  creation  of  man 
still  a  thing  in  futuro^  such  an  arrangement  as  that 
now  contended  for  might  appear  to  beings,  reason- 
ing as  we  do,  far  from  probable.  Why  in  the  original 
allotment  of  the  moral  faculties  of  man,  God  chose  to 
leave  his  work  so  far  imperfect  as  that  it  should  re- 
quire a  course  of  subsequent  reparniion  and  of  special 
Divine  interference  for  its  correction,  it  is  impossible 
to  explain.  The  question,  however,  is  here  not  one 
of  argument  or  of  speculation  upon  presumed  possi- 
bilities, but  of  fact.  We  appeal  at  once  to  that  ano- 
malous thing,  human  nature,  and  deny,  because  the 
testimony  of  history  is  uniform  as  to  this  point,  that 
man,  constituted,  as  we  know  him  to  be,  can  attain 
to  any  high  degree  of  moral  and  spiritual  elevation, 
independently  of  such  adventitious  help  as  that  deriv- 
able from  a  written  communication  of  the  Divine  will. 
The  thing  has  been,  as  we  know,  frequently  and  fairly 
tried.  Nations,  under  almost  every  possible  modifi- 
cation of  condition,  have  existed  in  ignorance  of  a 
Divine  revelation,  and  the  result  has  invariably  been 
the  same  in  character,  if  not  exactly  so  in  degree. 
In  many  cases  man  has  sunk  in  real  degradation  far 
below  the  level  of  the  brute  creation,  and  in  none  has 
assumed  that  high  moral  elevation  which  is  made 
attainable  to  us  by  Christianity.  In  every  such 
instance  the  best  and  noblest  powers  of  the  human 
heart  and  head  have  lain  dormant,  and  the  grossest 
principles  have  constituted  the  main  moving  spring 
of  social  action  ;  nor  have  the  actual  moral  capabilities 
of  our  nature  been  at  all  apprehended  until  the  pro- 
mulgation of  a  positive  law,  under  the  most  solemn 
sanctions,  and  professing  to  emanate  from  Divine 
author  ty,  impressed  a  new  character  upon  society. 
Now,  it  is  easy  to  ask,  "  why  was  not  man  so  con- 
stituted as  to  begin  his  course  at  that  advanced  stage 


38  CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 

of  improvement  to  which  it  is  the  acknowledged 
ohject  of  revelation  eventually  to  lead  him  ?"  Bat  to 
this  question  the  mere  Deist  is  as  much  called  upon 
to  return  a  satisfactory  answer  as  the  Christian.  Both 
must  alike  shelter  themselves  in  their  ignorance. 
The  case,  however,  we  repeat,  is  nevertheless  one  of 
acknowledged  fact.  It  has  been  charged  as  an  im- 
probability against  the  Christian  system,  that  the 
revelation  of  it  was  delayed  until  4000  years  of  man's 
history  had  passed  away  :  nor  do  we,  any  more  than 
in  the  former  case,  attempt  to  give  an  explanation  of 
this  circumstance.  One  thing,  however,  has  at  all 
events  been  established  by  it :  that  is  to  say,  it  has  by 
this  means  been  irrefragably  proved,  that  the  highest 
powers  of  unassisted  human  reason  are  perfectly 
mcapable  of  making  any  real  discoveries  in  religion. 
Had  we  no  other  scale  by  which  to  estimate  the  value 
of  revelation,  the  strange  and  innumerable  modifica- 
tions of  error  which  prevailed,  even  in  the  most  highly 
cultivated  nations,  during  the  period  of  its  absence, 
would  effectually  supply  one.  If,  however,  it  be  now 
certain,  and  certain  it  appears  to  be,  as  infinitely 
modified  experiments  can  make  it,  that  such  is  the 
natural  feebleness  of  the  human  mental  powers,  what 
becomes  of  the  favourite  contemptuous  argument  of 
the  Infidel,  which  assumes  at  once  the  a  priori  im- 
probability of  any  Divine  revelation  whatever,  the 
object  of  which  should  be  the  correction  of  those 
deficiencies  ? 

It  signifies  nothing  towards  the  discussion  in  ques- 
tion, whether,  or  not  Providence  in  its  wisdom  might 
not  have  arranged  things  otherwise.  Our  reference 
is  to  man  a^e  know  him  to  be  constituted,  and  to 
the  existing  order  of  things.  To  say  nothing  of  the 
Pagan  ages  of  antiquity,  and  the  moral  abominations 
which  pervaded  ev^ry  class  of  society  in  the  most 
brilliant  days  of  classic  Greece  and  Italy,  let  the 
Infidel  explain  why  at  this  moment,  as  we  cast  our 
eyes  over  the  different  portions  of  the  globe,  we  find 


I 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


39 


a 


Christianity  and  civilization  coextensive  ;  and  why, 
even  among  the  nations  of  Christendom,  those  are 
confessedly  most  advanced  in  all  the  arts  which 
elevate  our  nature,  whose  modification  of  belief  ap- 
proaches nearest  to  the  primitive  purity  of  the  Bible? 
Let  him  show,  with  such  data  before  him,  that  the 
assertion  of  the  special  interference  of  the  Deity  for 
the  illumination  of  the  human  race,  involves  an 
absurd  or  untenable  proposition.  All  that  he  has 
shown  is,  that,  were  man's  nature  differently  consti- 
tuted, such  external  helps  might  not,  perhaps,  have 
been  necessary.  A  conclusion  which  no  believer  in 
revelation  will  deny,  but  which  proves  nothing  with 
respect  to  the  point  at  issue. 

We  will  assume,  then,  as  the  basis  of  the  following 
arguments,  that  an  actual  revelation  of  the  Divine 
will  cannot,  under  existing  circumstances,  be  said  to 
be  otherwise  than  probable.  But  admitting  thus 
much,  there  is  an  end  of  the  objection  alleged  against 
such  an  arrangement,  from  the  deviation  which  it 
implies  from  the  established  order  of  events.  True, 
indeed,  it  is,  that  a  distinct  revelation,  in  order  to  be 
such,  must  be  supposed  to  interfere  in  some  degree 
with  the  ordinary  course  of  nature.  Ends  are  attain- 
able only  by  means ;  and  the  means  adopted  must, 
in  all  cases,  have  reference  to  their  specific  object. 
A  uniform  and  universal  appeal  to  the  moral  feel- 
ings and  reasoning  powers  of  the  human  race,  can  be 
made  only  through  the  medium  of  one  out  of  two 
distinct  channels,  oral  or  written  communication. 
The  adoption  of  either  course  on  the  present  suppo- 
sition implies  a  miracle,  for  the  first  promulgators  of 
the  presumed  doctrines,  even  granting  that  they  avail 
themselves  of  merely  natural  instruments  for  the  de- 
livery of  their  message,  must  of  course  be  themselves 
specially  inspired.  To  allow,  however,  the  proba-  / 
bility  of  one  single  miracle  in  this  case,  involves  j 
effectively  the  necessity  of  others.  The  Providence 
which  once  thus  specially  interferes  with  mankind, 


If 


40 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


41 


a 


must  also  be  presumed  to  watch  over  its  own  arrange- 
ments, and  to  secure  their  adequate  operation.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  follow  the  obvious  course  of  this 
argument  into  all  its  branches,  to  show  that  the  prac- 
tical form  into  which  every  real  revelation  must  event- 
ually settle,  (because  that  form  is  the  only  one  which 
could  be  equally  efficient  in  all  ages,  and  in  every 
portion  of  the  habitable  globe,)  is  that  of  written  ex- 
positions of  the  Divine  will,  definite  in  their  form, 
and  authoritative  in  their  manner.  Oral  instruction, 
in  order  to  be  rendered  uniform  in  its  doctrines,  and 
universally  accessible  to  all  conditions  of  mankind, 
would  require  an  interminable  continuity  of  miracle, 
which  nothing  less  than  the  most  inevitable  necessity 
of  the  case  would  justify  us  in  expectino;.  But  the 
promulgation  of  a  written  revelation  is  like  the  single 
act  of  the  creation  of  the  universe,  a  miraculous 
agency^at  the  moment,  but  which,  having  once  taken 
place,  leaves  subsequent  events  to  pursue  their  natural 
and  established  course. 

If,  then,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  infer  that  God 
has,  on  some  occasion  or  other,  communicated  his 
will  to  mankind,  and  if  among  the  various  professed 
revelations  which  have  appeared  at  different  periods 
of  man's  history,  one  only  has  come  to  us  supported 
by  an  overpowering  weignt  of  evidence,  whilst  it  has 
at  the  same  time  been  productive  in  its  effects  of  a 
vast,  though  confessedly  incomplete,  renovation  of  the 
human  character,  we  have  undoubtedly  the  strongest 
reasons  for  believing  that  revelation  to  be  the  true 
one.  It  is  true  that  many  persons  may  be  found  who, 
whilst  they  assent  to  the  general  probability  of  the 
fact  of  a  revelation,  will  find  Avhat  they  imagine  to  be 
substantial  objections  to  every  religious  theory  which 
thus  far  has  assumed  that  character.  But  objections 
of  this  kind  are  almost  always  traceable  to  the  old 
fallacy,  which  has  just  now  been  alluded  to,  of  dic- 
tating imaginary  schemes  of  creation  to  Providence, 
instead  of  directing  our  judgment  by  what  we  know 


^ 


to  be  actually  established.    We  are  all  of  us  unwil- 
ling to  suppose  the  interposition  of  any  seemingly 
elaborate   means  between   the   enunciation  of   the 
Divine  will  and  the  attainment  of  its  end.     But  the 
great  lesson  taught  us   by  experience  is,  that  the 
anticipations  of  our  judgments  are  ever  more  hasty 
than  the   course  of  God's  proceedings.     Why  the 
workings  of  his  providence  move  thus  slowly,  and 
by  a  thus  apparently  intricate  process  of  contrivance, 
we  cannot  hope  to  explain,  but  we  are  experimentally 
certain  that  such  is  the  fact.     Those  persons,  then,"? 
who  are  inclined  to  believe  generally,  that  God  may,*-., 
not  inconsistently,  communicate  his  will  to  mankind, 
and  who  yet  are  offended  by  the  specific  mode  which 
the   believer   in  Christianity  asserts   to   have   been  ^) 
actually  adopted  by  him,  would  do  well  if,  instead  of  s, 
building  visionary  schemes  of  presumed  possibilities,  ( 
they  would  but  ask  themselves  how,  admitting  the 
actual  circumstance  of  humxin  nature^  they  can  conceive 
the  possibility  of  such  a  communication  by  any  less 
improbable  vehicle  than  that  now  supposed. 

The  appeal  to  human  conviction  must  be  made 
in  some  way  or  other,  and  yet  every  way  which  we 
can  imagine  must  be  attended  with  its  respective 
apparent  improbabilities,  of  which  those  who  are 
disposed  to  cavil  may  readily  take  advantage.  The 
candid  mind  will  of  course  make  its  option  on  the 
side  which  presents  the  smallest  sum  total  of  diffi- 
culty ;  and  we  have  no  hesitation  in  asserting,  that 
upon  a  full  examination  of  the  circumstances,  that 
side  will  be  found  to  be  the  one  which  assumes,  in 
the  first  place,  that  the  fact  of  a  revelation  of  God's 
will  is  intrinsically  probable :  and  secondly,  that  the 
only  professedly  inspired  documents,  bearing  the 
apparent  stamp  of  authenticity,  are  those  of  the 
Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures.  This  btter  propo- 
sition it  will  now  be  our  object  to  demonstrate  to  the 
best  of  our  power. 

In  attempting  to  speculate  upon  the  internal  pro- 

4* 


i 


<( 


42 


CONSISTENCY  OF  REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


43 


bability  of  the  truth  of  any  alleged  communication 
from  heaven,  the  mind  is  necessarily  compelled  to 
occupy  a  peculiar  position,  and  to  lay  down,  at  start- 
ing, certain  primary  propositions,  without  the  admis- 
sion of  which  it  is  obviously  impossible  to  proceed. 
To  derive  our  data  from  the  facts  which  in  this  late 
period  of  the  world  are  passing  daily  before  our  eyes, 
would  evidently  be  irrelevant  and  unphilosophical. 
We  must  be  prepared  to  meet  with  deviations  from 
the  presumed  established  laws  of  the  creation,  as  a 
matter  of  course.  At  the  same  time,  our  experience 
of  the  fixedness  and  uniformity  of  the  ordinary  opera- 
tions of  nature,  forbids  our  assuming  that  Providence, 
under  any  circumstances,  would  be  unnecessarily 
lavish  in  the  operation  of  miracles.  So  long  as  they 
might  be  wanted  to  give  the  first  impulse  in  the 
launching  of  a  new  system,  they  might  reasonably 
be  looked  for;  but  such  operations  as  are  obviously 
within  the  competency  of  natural  causes  to  produce, 
might  on  the  other  hand  be  expected  to  occur,  accord- 
ing to  the  more  ordinary  process.  It  is  on  this  prin- 
ciple that  a  new  scale  of  probabilities  will  suggest 
itself  to  the  inquirer  into  the  internal  evidences  of 
revelation.  It  would  be  a  manifest  contradiction  to 
look  for  a  perfect  analogy  between  the  first  creation 
of  a  system,  and  its  subsequent  ordinary  cause  of 
operation,  and  yet  the  necessary  deviation  from  order, 
thus  occasioned,  would  not,  it  may  be  presumed,  be 
disorderly.  In  other  words,  the  quantum  of  necessity 
would  be  the  measure  of  the  quantum  of  miracle  to 
be  calculated  upon.  It  is  indeed  manifestly  impossi- 
ble for  the  human  mind  to  act  upon  this  rule  with 
any  thing  approaching  to  accuracy,  and  yet  perhaps 
we  may  approximate  to  it  sufficiently  for  the  purpose 
of  conjecturing  how  far  the  miracles,  recorded  in  any 
given  form  of  revelation,  appear  worthy  of  a  wise 
Providence,  and  calculated  to  produce  their  respec- 
tive objects.  Every  person  at  all  acquainted  with 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  will  perceive  how  strikingly  this 


observation  applies  to  the  preternatural  incidents 
which  we;find  there  related.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
miracles  of  the  Bible  which  in  the  slightest  degree, 
reminds  us  of  the  monstrous  wonders  of  the  imagina- 
tive works  of  fiction.  Be  the  narrative  true  or  false, 
at  all  events  the  admixture  of  preternatural  occur- 
rences is  exactly,  on  all  occasions,  kept  down  to  the 
strict  necessity  of  the  case,  and  natural  instruments, 
where  available,  are  made  to  contribute  their  share 
towards  the  production  of  the  event.  This  prelimi- 
nary observation  it  is  quite  necessary  that  we  should 
make,  in  order  that  it  may  be  distinctly  understood 
what  is  the  kind  of  probabilities  which,  in  the  course 
of  the  ensuing  observations,  we  shall  endeavour  to 
trace  in  the  narratives  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment. No  Christian,  who  recollects  the  inscrutable 
mysteries  which  envelope  Deism  itself,  will  shrink 
from  avowing  the  strict  analogy  which,  in  that  re- 
spect, exists  between  the  religion  of  unenlightened 
reason,  and  that  of  the  Gospel.  He  knows  that  every 
particle  of  matter,  every  intellectual  perception,  teems 
with  wonder.  But  still  it  should  never  be  forgotten 
that  the  prevailing  spirit  of  Scripture,  even  in  its 
highest  excitement,  is  that  of  unostentatious  sobriety, 
and  that  a  calm,  candid,  and  teachable  frame  of  mind 
is  that  which  is  alone  adapted  for  taking  a  compre- 
hensive view  .of  the  whole  system  of  r^^lation,  and 
pronouncing  judgment  upon  its  internal  probability. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Of  the  Mosaic  History  of  the  Creation. 

To  begin,  then,  with  the  scriptural  accouht  of  the 
creation  of  the  world.  The  doctrine  of  the  past 
eternity  of  the  universe  is  a  necessary  consequence  of 
the  principles  of  Atheism.    If  there  exists  no  Creator, 


44 


1 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


45 


W 


it  obviously  follows,  that  all  things  must  have  been, 
from  all  eternity,  precisely  what  we  find  them  to  be 
at  present ;  in  other  words,  owing  their  being  to  an 
inherent  principle  of  self-existence,  they  could  never 
have  undergone  any  modification  or  change  either 
from  internal  or  external  causes.  Every  fact,  how- 
ever, derived  from  the  experiments  of  scientific  men 
is  directly  at  variance  with  this  supposition.  If  there 
is  one  conclusion  in  philosophy  more  certain  than 
another,  it  is  that  the  universe  around  us,  and  the 
globe  which  we  inhabit,  must  have  had  a  beginning. 
Nor  is  this  all :  with  regard  to  the  latter,  we  know 
not  only  that  it  has  emanated  from  some  creative 
power,  but  that  it  has  received  peculiar  modifications 
from  time  to  time,  which,  by  the  beneficial  effects 
resulting  from  them,  mark  the  continuing  superin- 
tendence of  a  wise  and  benevolent  mind.  The  present 
condition  in  which  we  find  it,  has  evidently  been  pro- 
duced at  no  very  remote  period  from  our  own  time. 
The  several  chronometers  supplied  by  the  regular 
operation  of  existing  phenomena  on  tne  surface  of 
the  earth,  all  coincide  most  remarkably  with  the  date 
of  the  creation,  as  recorded  in  the  Mosaic  writings. 
Every  discovery  of  the  geologist  supplies  the  same 
inference,  so  far  as  it  refers  to  the  history  of  the 
human  race.  Be  the  antiquity  of  the  material  mass 
of  the  globe  what  it  may,  and  allowing  the  utmost 
latitude  to  the  calculations  of  those  who  conceive 
that  the  various  stratifications  of  the  earth  must  have 
been  the  result  of  an  almost  infinite  succession  of 
slow  deposits  and  diluvian  submersions,  still  it  is  ad- 
mitted by  all  parties,  that  the  first  appearance  of  man 
must  be  considered  as  subsequent  to  all  other  forma- 
tions of  animals,  and  to  all  important  modifications 
of  the  mineral  world,  with  the  exception  only  of  one 
single  diluvian  action,  which  appears  to  have  taken 
effect  at  a  later  period. 

That  there  is  a  broad  and  general  appearance  of 
agreement  between  these  facts  and  the  Mosaic  nar- 


rative, cannot  be  denied,  whatever  difficulty  we  may 
find  in  reconciling  the  scriptural  account  of  a  six 
days'  creation  with  those  longer  epochs  of  time  which 
geologists  have  generally  considered  necessary  to 
account  for  the  successive  stratifications  of  the  soil, 
and  the  production  of  the  inferior  animals.  Now  the 
question  is,  whether  this  general  accordance  be  suffi- 
cient, even  presuming  the  conclusions  of  geologists 
to  be  correct,  to  justify  our  belief  in  the  Divine 
inspiration  of  the  scriptural  narrative  of  the  creation  ? 
This  question  we  may  surely  venture  to  answer  in 
the  affirmative,  when  we  recollect  that  the  exclusive 
object  of  revelation  is  to  inculcate  a  moral  lesson,  by 
making  us  acquainted  with  the  spiritual  position  of 
man,  with  reference  to  the  Deity,  and  not  with  the 
comparatively  unimportant  facts  of  natural  history. 
That  Scripture,  indeed,  should  wilfully  falsify  any 
narrative  of  circumstances,  and  gratuitously  introduce 
fable,  where  the  plain  truth  would  be  equally  intel- 
ligible, it  were  impiety  to  suppose.  But  surely  we 
may  admit  that  there  would  be  nothing  inconsistent 
with  the  Divine  perfections  in  touching  only  generally 
and  incidentally,  and  with  a  certain  allowance  for 
the  ignorance  of^an  unphilosophical  age,  those  portions 
of  its  narrative,  which  are  rather  necessary  accom- 
paniments than  any  integral  and  component  part  of 
the  main  subject  matter.  We  may  ask,  moreover, 
if  it  be  required  of  Scripture  that  it  should  always, 
when  referring  to  merely  physical  phenomena,  relate 
the  real  and  precise  fact,  "  with  the  received  opinions 
of  what  age  of  the  world  ivould  those  facts  accord  .^" 
Human  theories,  we  should  recollect,  are  continually 
changing  in  proportion  to  the  progress  of  discovery ; 
and  what  would  appear  to  be  a  philosophical  truth 
to-day,  may,  in  many  cases,  be  an  exploded  falsehood 
to-morrow.  Had  Moses,  for  instance,  inculcated  the 
doctrine  of  the  Cartesian  vortices,  that  circumstance, 
which  in  the  seventeenth  century  would  have  been 
considered  as  the  strongest  proof  of  his  inspiration, 


1 


46 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


47 


t 


would  have  been  a  decided  refutation  of  it  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighteenth.  Were  strict  philosophical 
accuracy,  therefore,  to  be  required  as  a  necessary  test 
of  an  inspired  narrative,  it  is  obvious  that  it  would 
really  be  in  accordance  with  no  one  possible  period 
of  the  slate  of  human  knowledge,  unless  we  can  sup- 
pose that  the  time  will  actually  arrive  in  which 
experience  will  have  no  more  to  learn,  and  the  whole 
process  of  investigation  be  completed.  If,  then,  even 
revelation  itself  would  be  justified  from  the  necessity 
of  the  case,  in  stopping  short  of  this  extreme  point, 
why,  it  may  be  asked,  should  we  expect  it  to  do  so 
at  one  period  more  than  another ;  or  rather,  why 
should  it  not  at  once  adapt  itself,  so  far  as  it  can  do 
so  consistently  with  the  substantial  communication 
of  truth,  to  that  state  of  knowledge  which  prevailed 
at  the  time  when  its  communications  were  first  made  ? 
Such  would  appear  to  be  the  course  necessary  to 
make  itself  practically  intelligible  to  the  parties 
addressed,  and,  as  a  choice  of  difficulties,  would 
seem  to  be  the  least  objectionable,  because  the  most 
really  useful  mode  of  proceeding. 

Still,  however,  after  making  due  allowance  for  this 
necessary  principle  of  accommodation,  facts,  we 
conceive,  may  be  traced  in  the  Mosaic  narrative, 
which  would  seem  to  announce  an  acquaintance  with 
some  of  the  phenomena  of  the  universe,  as  substan- 
tiated by  subsequent  discovery,  which  it  would  be 
difficult  to  account  for  in  any  other  way  than  that  of 
a  presumed  express  inspiration.  It  is  true  that  spe- 
culation upon  these  points,  where  the  subject  matter 
is  confessedly  so  mysterious,  and  upon  so  vast  and 
intricate  a  scale,  ought  to  be  indulged  in  with  extreme 
caution,  as  liable  to  the  exaggerations  and  false  con- 
clusions of  an  excited  imagination.  Experimental 
science,  which  is  always  progressive,  must  ever  be 
an  equivocal  auxiliary  to  the  fixed  and  immovable 
truths  of  revelation.  Still,  however,  as  infidelity  has 
for  the  furtherance  of  its  object,  availed  itself  ot  pre- 


sumed inaccuracies  in  the  scriptural  records  of  the 
creation,  there  cannot  surely  be  an  impropriety  in 
pointing  out,  with  all  due  diffidence,  a  few  of  the 
facts  there  asserted,  which  would  seem  to  accord  in 
a  striking  manner  with  the  discoveries  of  modern 
science ;  or  with  what  might  be  conjectured  as  pro- 
bable with  reference  to  the  early  condition  of  a  world 
such  as  ours,  and  the  condition  of  human  nature, 
when  existing  under  strange  and  unwonted  circum- 
stances. In  addition,  then,  to  the  preceding  general 
remarks  on  this  subject,  we  may  observe,  in  the  first 
place,  that  the  surface  of  the  globe  immediately  after 
the  time  of  its  first  formation,  is  asserted  by  Moses 
to  have  been  nearly  that  of  semi-fluidity.  Now  that 
such  must  have  been  the  case  is  considered  by  geolo- 
gists as  a  matter  of  perfect  certainty.  But  it  may 
be  urged  that  the  proofs  of  this  circumstance  are  so 
visibly  impressed  upon  the  whole  surface  of  the  earth 
that  Moses  might  easily  have  arrived  at  that  conclu- 
sion, even  though  we  suppose  him  to  have  had  no 
more  than  the  common  knowledge  of  a  tolerably 
careful  observer  of  nature.— Be  it  so.  Still  it  remains 
to  be  shown  by  what  happy  coincidence  it  was  that 
the  order  of  the  successive  productions  of  the  Creator, 
commencing  in  the  inferior  races  of  animals,  and 
advancing  onward  from  fishes  and  birds  to  quadru- 
peds, and  from  quadrupeds  to  man,  should  have  been 
asserted  by  him  in  a  series  so  nearly,  if  not  exactly, 
corresponding  with  that  in  which  the  discoveries  of 
geology  have  shown  them  to  have  occurred.  It  is 
impossible  to  suppose  him  to  have  been  possessed  of 
facts,  gleaned  solely  by  a  regular  process  of  scientific 
induction,  sufficient  lor  the  establishment  of  this 
theory.  Was  it  then  a  mere  fortunate  guess,  or  are 
we  not  rather  justified  in  referring  his  knowledge  to 
the  higher  source  of  inspiration  ? 

Another  remarkable  seeming  accordance,  to  say 
the  least  of  it,  with  the  recent  discoveries  of  science, 
in  a  branch  of  philosophy  which  depends,  for  its  very 


48 


CONSISTENCY  OF  REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN  REASON. 


49 


existence,  upon  the  perfection  of  our  modern  optical 
instruments,  occurs  almost  at  the  very  commence- 
ment of  the  Mosaic  narrative.  Let  it,  however,  be 
here  again  observed,  that  we  allude  to  these  facts  as 
prima  facie  coincidences  merely.  Ignorant  as  mankind 
are,  and  as  they  are  probably  for  ever  destined  to 
remain,  of  the  real  nature  oi  the  remote  heavenly 
bodies,  it  is  evidently  impossible  that  we  can  venture 
to  found  upon  the  assumptions  of  modern  science  any 
thing  more  than  a  vague  general  surmise,  with  regard 
to  what  may  be  the  true  theory  of  that  mysterious 
portion  of  the  universe.  It  is,  we  repeat,  only  because 
infidelity  has  let  pass  no  opportunity  of  directing  the 
presumed  discoveries  of  science  against  revelation, 
that  we  feel  ourselves  justified  in  using  arguments 
of  the  same  description  in  its  defence,  so  far  as  they 
may  be  fairly  available.  The  coincidence  to  which 
we  now  allude,  appears  to  us  a  striking  one ;  let  the 
reader  attach  to  it  what  degree  of  credit  he  may  con- 
ceive that  it  deserves.  Every  person  conversant  with 
the  scriptural  account  of  the  creation  must  have  been 
to  a  certain  degree  perplexed  by  the  fact  that  Moses 
asserts  light  to  have  been  called  into  existence  on  the 
first  day,  and  yet  expressly  declares  that  the  sun  and 
moon  were  not  created  as  luminaries  until  the  fourth. 
This  statement,  at  first  sight,  has  the  air  of  singular 
and  glaring  inconsistency,  which  it  would  seem  to 
be  impossible  to  reconcile  with  truth.  If  we  consider 
the  writer  of  the  Book  of  Genesis  as  an  impostor,  or 
a  fanatical  theorist,  attempting  to  impose  his  own 
wild  speculations  upon  the  world,  we  cannot  possibly 
imagine  a  statement  less  likely  to  suggest  itself  to  the 
author  himself,  or  less  calculated  to  secure  proselytes. 
And  yet  the  observations  of  the  late  Sir  W.  Herschell 
afibrd  us  reason  to  believe,  as  is  well  known,  that  a 
process  is  at  this  moment  going  on  in  the  system  of 
the  heavenly  bodies  precisely  analogous  with  this 
statement  ot  the  Mosaic  writings.  That  celebrated 
astronomer,   in  his  paper  addressed  to  the  Royal 


Society,   in   1811,   on   the   subject  of  the  celestial 
nebulae,  has  given  the  history  of  his  own  observations 
carefully  followed  up  during  the  course  of  a  long  life. 
He  has  there  shown  that  those  irregularly  shaped  and 
widely  diffused  masses  of  light,  which  under  the 
name  of  luminous  nebulae,  had  long  attracted  the 
notice  of  scientific  men,  and  which  are  known  to 
exist  in  vast  numbers,  in  various  parts  of  the  heavens, 
are,  by  a  regular  process  of  gradual  condensation, 
made  to  approach  more  and  more  to  a  spherical  form, 
until,  having  acquired  a  bright  stellar  nucleus,  and 
losing  their  remaining  nebulosity,  they  finally  assume 
all  the  definite  brightness  of  a  regular  fixed  star.   From 
the  uniformity  of  this  operation,  so  far  as  it  has  been 
remarked,  and  from  the  vast  multitude  of  instances 
in  which  it  has  taken,  and  is  still  taking  place,  it 
seems  natural  to  infer  that  a  large  portion  of  those 
stars,  whose   places  have   been    recognised   in  the 
heavens  from  time  immemorial,  derived  their  first 
origin  from  the  same  process.     But  it  is  also  the 
generally  received  opinion,  that  the  sun  of  our  own 
planetary  system  is  a  star  precisely  of  the  same  nature 
with  the  rest;  and  if  so,  it  seems  not  improbable 
from  analogy,  that  it  derived  its  present  form  from 
the  same  cause  of  condensation,  and  that  its  original 
state  of  existence  was  that  of  a  thin  luminous  fluid, 
occupying  a  vast  portion  of  the  orbits  of  those  plane- 
tary bodies  of  which  it  is  now  the  centre.     It  is  surely 
not  a  little  remarkable,  that  what  might  a  century 
ago  have  been  quoted  as  a  seeming  absurdity  and 
oversight  in  Scripture,  should  be  found  thus  signally 
to  accord  with  one  of  the  most  curious  discoveries  of 
modern  astronomical  science. 


0\ 


50 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


51 


t| 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Of  the  Longevity  of  the  Antediluvian  Generations. 

Another  peculiarity  in  the  scriptural  account  of 
the  early  period  of  the  world,  which,  for  convenience 
sake,  we  shall  allude  to  somewhat  out  of  its  regular 
order,  is  the  remarkable  longevity  which  it  attributes 
to  the  antediluvian  races.    This  is  a  statement  so  little 
accordant  with  existing  experience,  that  we  believe 
It  to  have  not  unfrequently  startled  sincere  believers 
in  the  general  veracity  of  the  Mosaic  writings,  whilst 
It  has,  undoubtedly,  seemed  to  afford  a  handle  for 
triuniph  to  the  declared  sceptic.     The  case  must  be 
admitted  to  be  a  perplexing  one ;  yet  still  we  think 
that  we  can  perceive  reasons  derived  from  the  condi- 
tion  of  mankind  at  that  early  epoch  which  would 
seem  to  make  such  an  arrangement  a  not  improbable 
result  of  the  decrees  of  a  wise  Providence.     Every 
well-founded  criticism  upon  the  internal  evidence  of 
revelation,  we  must  again  remind  our  readers,  must 
be  built  entirely  upon  the  admitted  phenomena  of 
human  nature,  both  moral  and  physical.     We  must 
necessarily  suppose  that  God  willed  the  early  civiliza- 
tion  of  mankind,  but,  as  we  have  no  reason  to  believe 
that  the  intellectual  faculties  of  man,  from  the  time 
of  the  fall  of  our  first  parents,  were  other  than  what 
we  know  them  to  be  at  the   present   moment,   we 
must  necessarily  suppose  that  the  earliest  generations 
required  precisely  the  same  secondary  helps  to  know- 
ledge  which,  under  similar  circumstances,  would  be 
most  available  to  their  latest  descendants.    Now  the 
objection  of  the  sceptic,  on  this  occasion,  is  founded 
upon  the  mere  gratuitous  assumption,  that  what  ap- 
pear  to  us  to  be  the  fixed  laws  of  nature,  must  always 
have  been  such,  even  when  the  strongest  necessity 
and  the  most  urgent  expediency  required  their  pro- 


visional modification.     It  surely  can  be  deemed  no 
very  bold  assertion,  if  we  assume  that  the  rule  of 
internal  probability  would  rather  incline  us  to  adopt 
the  opposite  conclusion.  Admitting  the  present  three 
score  and  ten  years,  which  are  usually  considered  as 
the  average  maximum  of  human  life,  to  be  sufficient 
for   every  substantial  purpose  for    which   God  has 
thought  fit  to  place  us  in  this  world,  it  is  still  per- 
fectly obvious  that  so  contracted  a  term  would  have 
been  quite  insufficient,  in  the  first  commencement  of 
society,  to  enable  the  human  race  to  attain  at  any 
tolerably  early  period,  to  that  quantum  of  cultivation 
for  which  it  is  impossible  not  to  perceive  that  his 
Creator  intended  him.      Let  us  suppose,  then,  the 
first  inhabitants  of  the  earth  existing,  not  only  with- 
out the  more  abstruse  sciences,  but  without  those 
simple  rudiments  of  knowledge  necessary  for  the 
accommodation  of  society  in  its  ruder  state,  and  let 
us  consider  what  would  be  the  different  results  of  two 
distinct  arrangements ;  the  one  allotting  to  the  human 
individual  a  term  of   existence   little  short  of   one 
thousand  years,  and  the  other  cutting  him  off  at  the 
present  more  contracted  date.     It  is   evident   that 
knowledo-e,  in  the  former  case,  would,  from  the  vast 
accumulation  of  facts,  increase,  as  compared  with 
the  latter,  in  almost  a  geometrical  proportion.    There 
we  should  find  the   experienced  head  of  a  family 
communicating  to  successive  races  of  descendants 
the  hoarded  experience  of  centuries,  whilst,  according 
to  the  other  supposition,  we  might  expect  to  see  the 
first  commencements  of  knowledge  cut  off^  periodi- 
cally in  their  very  germ,  and  generation  succeeding 
to  generation  with  no  better  lights  of  science  than  the 
transmitted  abortive  attempts  of  persons  whose  lives 
have  terminated  almost  before  their  really  effective 
education  had  begun.     It  would,  of  course,  be  the 
hei<rht  of  presumption  to  assert  that  this  is  the  real 
explanation  of  the  remarkable  dispensation  of  Pro- 
vidence now  alluded  to.      It  cannot,  however,  be 


(}« 


i__ 


52 


CONSISTENCY  OF  REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN  REASON- 


5a 


doubted,  that  allowing  to  the  early  race  of  mankind 
the  same  average  faculties  possessed  by  their  descend- 
ants, such  would  be  the  very  dissimilar  degrees  of 
benefit  produced  by  the  two  different  systems  here 
supposed.  How,  then,  would  it  be  advocating  an 
improbability,  to  suppose  that  a  benevolent  Creator 
may,  under  a  special  emergency,  have  peculiarly 
adapted  the  operation  of  secondary  causes,  for  a 
limited  period,  to  the  wants  of  his  creatures  ?*     Be, 

•  It  seems  perfectly  certain,  from  what  we  know  experimentally  of 
the  nature  of  the  human  faculties,  that  man  at  his  first  creation  must, 
for  some  short  time  at  least,  have  depended  f(»r  his  animal  existence  upon 
the  special  superintendence  of  his  Creator  in  a  manner  to  which  we  find 
nothing  analogous  in  the  existing  order  of  the  universe.  All  well-in- 
formed persons,  whether  sceptics  or  believers  in  revelation,  are  agreed  in 
admitting  that  the  human  race  were  first  introtluced  into  our  planet  at  a 
comparatively  recent  period  of  time.  What  then  was  the  condition  of 
the  aboriginal  parents  of  mankind  at  the  moment  of  their  first  produc- 
tion 1  The  case  admits  of  only  two  sup[X)eitions  ;  they  were  either  chil- 
dren or  adults  :  in  either  supposition  a  n^.iracle,  or  what  is  equivalent  to  a 
miracle,  was  necessary  for  their  support.  Had  they  been  children,  it  is 
self-evident  that  they  must  have  perished  within  a  few  hours  after  their 
creation,  unless  sustained  by  some  such  providential  interference  as  that 
now  supposed.  If  they  were  adults,  the  re.sult  would  have  been  the 
same,  although  the  argument  from  which  we  derive  that  inference  may 
be  somewhat  less  palpably  obvious.  All  the  practical  knowledge  which 
we  arrive  at  through  our  bodily  senses  is.  we  know,  derived  solely  from 
experience.  A  human  adult,  waking  for  the  first  time  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  existence,  with  all  his  animal  faculties  in  full  vigour,  and  under 
the  most  favourable  circumstances  of  climate  and  boclily  comfort,  would 
be  as  incapable  as  a  new-born  infant  of  availing  himself,  by  any  natural 
effort,  of  the  means  of  sustenance,  however  liberally  spread  around  him, 
and  would  perish  before  he  would  have  acquired  the  knowledge  requisite 
for  the  suppwrt  of  life.  He  would  po8se.'«s  eyes,  but  the  impression  of 
external  objects  upon  the  retina  would  convey  no  definite  ideas :  he  would 
have  limbe,  but  they  would  \ye  useless  for  the  purposes  of  locomotion.  Ho 
would  want  every  conception  of  space,  distance,  solidity,  vacuity,  Ac 
In  addition  to  this,  he  would  be  debarred  from  the  faculty  of  the  comma- 
nication  of  his  feelings  by  speech.  It  is  manifest,  that  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, life  could  be  maintained  only  by  the  direct  intervention  of 
some  guardian  power,  either  instilling  miraculously  that  practical  know- 
ledge which,  under  oi-dinary  circumstances,  is  the  result  of  long  expe- 
rience only,  or  else  directly  providing  for  his  physical  necessities,  as  they 
successively  occurred.  That  the  human  race  does  exist  at  this  moment, 
is  a  proof  that  some  such  special  care  as  that  now  sup^x)8ed  must  have 
been  extended  by  the  mercy  of  the  Creator  to  the  parent  stock  from  which 
we  are  descended.  It  is,  therefore,  perfectly  vain  and  unphilosophical  to 
assume  what  may  have  been  the  physical  circumstances  of  the  world  in 
in  its  infancy,  from  what  is  at  this  moment  passing  before  our  eyes.  So 
far  from  inferring  them  to  have  been  the  same  with  the  present  course  of 
events,  we  are  compelled  to  suppose  that  they  must  have  been  in  man/ 


however,  this  as  it  may,  it  is  certain  that  the  inspired 
historian  pleads  neither  this  nor  any  other  reason  as 
an  explanation  of  the  seemingly  anomalous  fact  which 
he  records.  He  seems  to  compose  his  narrative  merely 
ministerially,  and  without  the  insertion  of  a  single 
comment.    We  detect  in  it  nothing  of  the  interested 
advocate,  striving  to  show  the  real  internal  probability 
of  a  startling  proposition.     No  mode  of  writing,  as- 
suredly, carries  with  it  more  of  the  air  of  real  inspira- 
tion than  that  where  the  facts  stated  appear  at  first 
sit^ht   incongruous    and  anomalous,  but  lose,   upon 
subsequent  reflection,  much  of  their  apparent   im- 
probability ;  and  where  the  writer  himself  appears 
to  be  perfectly  unaware  of  the  value  of  the  truths 
he  is  communicating.  Whether  this  observation  will 
apply  to  the  case  now  before  us,  may  be  matter  ot 
opinion.     It  is  one,  however,  which  may,  with  cer- 
tainty, be  extended  to  many  striking  passages  both  ot 
the  Old  and  of  the  New  Testament. 

resoects  essentially  different.  So  fallacious  is  the  argument  derived  from 
S^wn^re  perLnal  experience  in  these  mysterious  questions.  W  0^ 
Si^Ja?d  toX  use  of  language,  it  seems  difficult  to  imagme  that  it  could 
Tale  been  ix>^^db;th?  earliest  generations  of  mankind  excepting 
Through  thJa.dtrDi  vine  instruction.^  This  surmise,  which  ^heacknovv. 
tedded  circumstances  of  our  nature  seem  to  point  out  as  the  only  probable 
SStL  of  a  great  metaphysical  difficulty,  seems  to  derive  some  warrant 
from  ?hest^iemen  given  in  Genesis  ii.  19.  "  And  out  of  the  ground  the 
Lor"  G^  formed"eVf  ry  beast  of  the  field,  and  every  ^owl  of  the  a. ;  a^ 
brought  them  unto  Adam  to  see  what  he  would  call  ^^^m.  and  whatso. 
«ier  Adam  called  every  living  creature,  that  was  the  name  thereof. 


5* 


I 


54 


CONSISTENCY  OF  BEVELATtbN 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


5S 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Of  the  Fall  of  our  First  Parents. 

The  most  remarkable  and  perplexing  part  of  the 
Mosaic  narrative  of  the  early  history  of  the  human 
species  is  that  which  refers  to  the  original  condition 
in  Paradise  of  our  first  parents,  and  to  their  subse- 
quent fall.  As  this  event  constitutes  the  very  founda- 
tion upon  which  the  whole  structure  of  Christianity 
is  built,  and  as  it  has  afforded  not  only  the  great 
object  of  attack  to  Infidels,  but  has  also  been  a  source 
of  the  most  discordant  opinions  among  the  various 
denominations  of  Christians,  it  will  be  expedient  to 
examine  it  in  some  considerable  detail.  On  a  subject, 
indeed,  so  profoundly  mysterious,  it  would  be  absurd 
in  the  extreme  to  hope  that  any  examination  of  ours 
could  suggest  any  satisfactory  explanation  of  what  is 
manifestly  beyond  the  reach  of  human  reason.  All 
that  we  can  attempt  to  do  is,  to  take  the  few  facts 
related  by  Moses  in  as  literal  a  sense  as  possible, 
keeping  out  of  sight,  at  the  same  time,  all  the  tradi- 
tional notions  which,  without  any  authority  of  Scrip- 
lure,  have,  in  the  course  of  ages,  been  attached  to 
them  by  human  ingenuity;  and  then  to  inquire  how 
far  what  we  find  to  be  actually  stated  as  matter  of 
fact  accords  with  the  established  and  acknowledged 
phenomena  of  human  nature.  In  order  to  come  to  a 
perfect  understanding  on  this  point,  it  will,  of  course, 
oe  necessary  to  examine  our  moral  constitution,  such 
as,  from  our  own  internal  consciousness  and  our  in- 
tercourse with  mankind  we  know  it  experimentally 
to  be,  and  to  observe  how  far  it  bears  any  traces  of 
that  degradation  which  we  are  told  has  been  thus 
inflicted  upon  it,  subsequently  to  its  first  production 
by  its  Creator.  Now  there  is  not,  perhaps,  a  single 
Theist,  or  even  Atheist,  who  will  not,  on  this  subject, 


assent  implicitly  to  the  definition  of  our  nature  as 
afforded  by  revelation.  *'  The  heart  of  man  is  evil 
from  his  youth.'*  Is  this,  we  ask,  or  is  it  not,  the 
strict  truth  ?  It  matters  not  for  the  present  argument 
how  such  happened  originally  to  be  the  case.  The 
question  is  one  of  practical  experience.  "  The  good 
Uiat  I  would,  I  do  not,"  says  St.  Paul,  "  but  the  evil 
which  I  would  not,  that  I  do."  Here  is  the  assertion 
of  an  abstract  perception  and  preference  in  our  minds 
of  what  is  good  and  honest,  continued  with  an  actual 
practical  bias  and  predisposition  in  our  carnal  feel- 
ings, to  act  directly  in  contradiction  to  our  better 
judgment,  which  we  have  no  hesitation  in  asserting, 
that  every  human  being  has  occasionally  perceived 
within  himself  from  his  first  infancy.  Is,  then,  this 
strange  collision,  which  we  all  feel,  between  our 
moral  sense,  and  the  suggestions  of  our  animal 
nature,  curable  by  any  inherent  power  of  spiritual 
exertion  lodged  within  ourselves?  The  very  terms 
of  the  proposition  already  stated,  supply  at  once  an 
answer  to  this  question.  If  the  preponderance  of 
our  nature  is  evil,  it  cannot  be  supposed  to  supply 
any  effectual  medicine  for  its  own  cure;  and  if  so, 
the  necessity  of  some  external  dispensation,  like  that 
of  the  Gospel,  for  the  removal  of  this  original,  and, 
by  us,  incurable  taint,  would  appear  to  follow  as  a 
matter  of  course.  It  would  signify  nothing,  we  repeat, 
as  to  the  argument  of  our  need  of  some  express  mode 
of  reconciliation  with  God,  how  this  disease  of  sin 
was  originally  introduced  into  man's  constitution, 
if  the  fact  of  its  actual  existence  there  be  once  well 
established.  Let  it  have  been  impressed  upon  each 
individual  distinctly  and  specially  at  his  birth  ;  let  it 
have  been  the  original  modification  of  the  human 
heart ;  or  let  it  have  been  the  acquired  consequence 
of  some  act  of  indiscretion  in  our  first  parents,  the 
consequence  to  ourselves -will,  at  all  events,  be  pre- 
cisely the  same.  The  fact  that  we  are  all  of  us  far  gone 
from  righteousness  will  still  remain  unimpeached. 


I     i 


>:      f\ 


56 


CONSISTENCT  OF  REVELATION 


WITH  HITMAN  REASON. 


57 


W 


In  this  point  of  view,  then,  the  recorded  history  of 
the  fall  of  our  first  parents  is  a  matter  of  speculative 
curiosity  rather  than  of  real  moment.  We  might 
naturally  wish  to  know  whence  this  strange  and 
anomalous  moral  arrangement  took  its  origin,  but  the 

Practical  result  to  ourselves  would  remain  the  same, 
e  our  theory  with  regard  to  that  origin  what  it  might. 
Man,  undoubtedly,  as  a  moral  agent,  prefers  evil  to 
good.     This  is  more  or  less  true  with  this  or  that 
individual,  but  it  is  still,  in  a  great  degree,  certainly 
true  of  all.     Even  the  best  men  will  occasionally 
recognise,  within  themselves,  a  kind  of  inconsequen- 
tial reasoning,  which  they  know  to  be  false,  whilst 
they  yield  to  it :  a  species  of  morbid  appetite  to  do 
precisely  that  which  conscience  tells  them  to  be  sin- 
ful.    But  with  regard  to  the  great  mass  of  mankind, 
it  is  truly  fearful  to  think  how  vast  is  the  extent  of 
depravity,  which  is  kept  within  tolerable  limits,  and 
is  rendered  compatible  with  the  existence  of  social 
order,  only  by  the  restraints  of  public  opinion,  or  by 
the  fear  of  the  magistrate.     It  is  true,  indeed,  that  to 
the  eye  of  the  careless  observer,  the  external  aspect 
of  society,  for  the   most  part,   appears  sufficiently 
smooth;  but  it  is  because  in  every  civilized  country 
the  superincumbent  weight  of  civil  government  and 
conventional  decorum  keeps  down  that  tendency  to 
resistance  which  is  sure  to  manifest  itself  the  mo- 
ment that,  by  change  of  circumstances,  an  opportu- 
nity for  so  doing  is  afforded.     But  the  principle  of 
morals,  we  should  recollect,  has  much  less  to  do  with 
external   actions   than   with   internal   motives.      It 
follows,  therefore,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  not 
only  that  a  man  may  be  a  grievous  sinner  before 
God,  whose  conduct  in  society  has  afforded  no  handle 
whatever  to  actual  censure,  but,  also,  it  is  an  obvious 
proposition,  that  his  internal  and  substantial  gu'lt 
[his  external  actions  continuing  precisely  the  same) 
will  ever  advance  progressively  in  atrocity,  precisely 
in  proportion  to  the  degree  of  positive  better  know- 


P 


ledge  against  the  dictates  of  which  he  shall  be  de- 
liberately offending. 

This  proposition  being  admitted,  the  conclusion  is 
inevitable ;  namely,  that,  50  long  as  the  original  cov' 
ruption  of  the  heart  continues  undiminished,  every 
advance  in  moral  and  religious  knowledge  will  necessa- 
rily be  an  advance  in  guiltiness.  Precisely  on  the  same 
prmciple  by  which  we  blame  that  ferocity  in  the 
uncultivated  savage,  which  we  consider  a  mere 
animal  instinct  in  a  beast  of  prev,  and  excuse  that 
conduct  in  a  savage  which  would  oe  deemed  unpar- 
donable in  a  civilized  heathen ;  so,  the  same  dead- 
ness  of  spiritual  feeling,  which  would  be  a  matter  of 
course  in  the  latter  character,  would  attach  an  awful 
responsibility  to  the  well-instructed  Christian . — Know- 
ledge, then,  is  the  source  of  guiltiness :  increase  of 
knowledge  to  any  class  of  beings,  whose  instinctive 
predisposition  is  such  as  to  incline  them  to  prefer 
Knowingly  the  worse  to  the  better  principle,  is  vir- 
tually and  substantially  an  increase  of  guilt.  Such, 
then,  is  the  fallacy  of  the  argument  which  would 
attribute  to  man  the  faculty  of  healing  by  his  own 
natural  powers  of  moral  exertion,  with  no  better 
guide  than  his  intuitive  perceptions  of  right  and 
wrong,  the  evil  which  we  find  to  have  been,  in  some 
way  or  other,  inflicted  upon  his  spiritual  nature. 

Having  made  these  preliminary  observationsr,  let 
us  now  consider  the  narrative  of  the  fall  of  our  first 
parents  as  given  in  the  Mosaic  writings,  and  observe 
how  far  it  accords  with  the  anomalous  constitution  of 
the  human  heart,  as  established  by  our  own  expe- 
rience. In  discussing  this  subject,  it  is  no  easy 
matter  to  detach  ourselves  from  the  associations 
arising  from  early  oral  expositions,  and  the  theories 
of  rival  controversialists,  and  to  fix  our  attention 
singly  and  exclusively  upon  what  has  been  actually 
revealed.  Perhaps  no  one  theological  fact,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  momentous  interests  connected  with 
it,  and  the  train  of  poetic  ideas  which  it  is  so  well 


58 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


t« 


1 


calculated  to  suggest,  has  suffered  more  from  the 
admixture  of  extraneous  human  theories  than  the 
one  before  us.  The  very  small  space  occupied  in 
Scripture  by  the  narrative  of  the  fall  of  man,  when 
compared  with  our  own  multifarious  conceptions  on 
the  subject,  may  afford  a  salutary  hint  to  the  mind  of 
every  well  disposed  person,  of  the  danger  incident  to 
us  all,  of  mistaking  our  peculiar  intellectual  specula- 
tions and  the  traditions  of  our  infancy  for  revelation 
itself,  if  we  do  not  take  care  to  secure  the  accuracy  of 
our  notions,  by  measuring  them  carefully  from  time 
to  time,  with  what  we  find  to  be  expressly  written. 
It  is  obvious,  that  if  we  would  discuss  this,  or  any 
other  mysterious  theological  question,  with  accuracy 
and  fairness,  we  can  do  so  only  by  abiding,  as  closely 
as  possible,  by  the  strict  letter  of  Holy  Writ,  inter- 
posing our  own  speculations  solely  where  they  appear 
to  follow  as  necessary  inferences  from  the  acknow- 
ledged language  of  the  original  document. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  we  may  observe,  that  the 
Book  of  Genesis  does  not  seem  to  assert  that  our  first 
parents  were  created  in  their  own  proper  nature, 
immortal,  though  it  appears  certain  that,  had  they 
retained  their  obedience,  they  were  not  only  capable 
of,  but  actually  destined  for,  an  incidental  and  con- 
ditional immortality,  the  consequence  of  their  repair- 
ing the  decay  of  their  bodies  by  the  fruit  of  the  tree 
of  life.  This  last  species  of  immortality,  though  a 
real  and  effective  one,  is  still  different  in  kind  from 
that  which  would  result  as  a  necessary  consequence 
from  the  original  constitution  of  the  corporeal  frame. 
In  the  one  case  mortality  would  follow,  from  the 
mere  circumstance  of  withholding  the  necessary 
aliment :  in  the  other  it  could  be  superinduced  only 
by  introducing  an  entire  change  of  the  animal  habits 
and  functions.  What,  therefore,  would  have  been 
the  ultimate  allotment  of  mankind  had  the  fall  never 
taken  place,  or  had  some  occasional  individuals 
amongst  the  descendants  of  Adam  only  fallen  into 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


59 


sin,  and  our  first  parents  escaped  from  pollution,  is 
a  matter  of  mere  conjecture,  on  which  it  were  as 
unwise,  as  it  is  unnecessary,  to  hazard  an  opinion. 
It  appears,  moreover,  in  the  second  place,  that  how- 
ever morally  superior  our  first  parents  may  have 
been  in  consequence  of  their  unblemished  innocence 
to  their  guilty  posterity  (and  vast  undoubtedly  that 
superiority  was)  still  with  regard  to  the  general  scope 
and  compass  of  their  knowledge,  they  were  inferior, 
not  only  to  their  own  offspring,  but  to  what  they 
themselves  subsequently  became  in  their  fallen  and 
guilty  condition.  So  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the 
very  short  statement  given  in  the  Book  of  Genesis, 
man,  at  his  first  creation,  was  the  first  of  terrestrial 
animals,  highly  and  admirably  fitted  for  his  situation, 
by  the  possession  of  many  appropriate  blessings,  and 
possessed  of  that  exact  degree  of  understanding  which 
was  calculated  for  every  purpose  of  harmless,  and, 
probably,  of  refined  enjoyment ;  and  yet  he  appears  to 
have  been  left  without  that  intuitive  moral  sense, 
which,  by  inculcating  the  nice  and  eternal  distinctions 
of  right  and  wrong,  renders  us  capable  of  sinning, 
from  the  simple  fact,  that  it  exclusively  suggests  the 
rule  by  which  we  apprehend  our  duty.  It  is  clear 
that  this  last  mentioned  faculty  might  have  been 
kindly  withheld  by  the  Creator,  on  account  of  the 
fearful  risk  attending  upon  a  gift  so  critical  and  so 
easily  abused,  and  yet  that  a  vast  residue  of  intel- 
lectual endowment  might  have  remained  for  the 
purposes  of  harmless  enjoyment,  as  the  allotment  of 
the  human  race.  Almost  all  the  arts  which  add  to 
the  social  happiness  of  life,  a  very  large  portion  of 
the  pleasures  of  imagination,  and  all  the  treasures  of 
experimental  knowledge,  might  have  been  possessed 
in  a  high,  perhaps  in  an  exuberant  degree  of  perfec- 
tion, by  creatures  untainted  by  sin,  because  unen- 
dowed with  that  peculiar  apprehension  which  alone 
creates  the  capability  of  sinning.  Such  a  constitu- 
tion of  human  nature,  in  its  original  state,  would 


60 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


61 


11 


1 
\ 


seem  to  harmonize  exactly  with  what  might  be  pre- 
sumed as  probable  with  regard  to  the  allotment  on 
the  surface  of  this  globe,  of  the  most  perfect  portion 
of  God's  earthly  creation.     Certain  it  is  that  revela- 
tion seems  expressly  to  imply,  that  man  did  not  acquire 
the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  until  the  moment  of 
his  transgression  of  the  Divine  prohibition.     And  it 
is  a  remarkable  confirmation  of  this  view  of  the  sub- 
ject, that  the  first  and  immediate  consequence  of  his 
disobedience  was  a  newly  acquired  sense  of  propriety 
and  decency  which  he  had  not  possessed  in  his  state 
of  innocence.      "  The  eyes  of  both  of  them  were 
opened,  and  they  knew  that  they  were  naked."      At 
the  same  time,  it  would  appear  that  their  animal 
passions  became  depraved  as  their  moral  apprehen- 
sions were  enlarged,  and  thus  begun  that  struggle 
between  carnality  and  better  knowledge,  which  has 
descended  from  them  in  such  fatal  proportion  to  their 
guilty  posterity.     We  may  also  observe,  in  confirma- 
tion of  the  supposition  here  hazarded,  namely,  that 
man  attained  to  an  enlarged  state  of  moral  appre- 
hension by  the  fall,  though  by  that  acquisition  he 
destroyed  the  just  equilibrium  of  his  original  and 
more  happily  blended  nature,  that  this  view  of  the 
subject  appears  to  be  sanctioned  by  the  expression 
which  Moses  puts  into  the  mouth  of  the  Almighty 
with  reference  to  that  event :— "  And  the  Lord  God 
said.  Behold,  the  man  is  become  as  one  of  its,  to  know 
good  and  evil:  and  now,  lest  he  put  forth  his  hand, 
and  take  also  the  tree  of  life,  and  eat,  and  live  for 
ever,  therefore  the  Lord  sent  him  forth  from  the  garden 

of  Eden,"  &c. 

The  purport  of  the  Mosaic  account  then  appears  to 
be,  that  what  really  occasioned  the  fall  and  ruin  of 
our  nature,  or  in  other  words,  the  introduction  of  our 
present  incongruous  and  anomalous  moral  constitu- 
tion, and  of  sin  as  a  necessary  consequence,  was  the 
acquisition  of  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  distinc- 
tions of  right  and  wrong,  by  a  creature  not  originally 


fitted  for  its  reception,  and,  therefore,  incapable  of 
making  a  proper  use  of  it.     That  such  a  change  could 
not  be  a  subject  of  approbation  with  a  God  of  infinite 
moral  purity,  and  in  whose  sight  the  amplest  endow- 
ments of  intellect  can  be  valuable  only  as  they  are 
found  to  cooperate  with  the  great  principles  of  duty, 
is  obviously  certain.      The  evil  spiritual  beings  so 
frequently  alluded  to  by  Scripture,  no  doubt,  possess 
intellectual  powers  far  beyond  those  at  present  allotted 
to  the  human  race,  but,  assuredly,  such  faculties  serve 
only  to  enhance  their  depravitv.     It  should,  however, 
be  remembered,  that  although  moral  knowledge,  so 
long  as  it  is  likely  to  be  abused  by  its  possessors, 
must  be  admitted  to  be  a  fatal  acquisition  to  any 
beings,  and  especially  to  such  as  may  have  been  placed 
in  that  happy  state  of  innocence  enjoyed  by  our  first 
parents ;  it  is  still,  in  strictness,  not  only  a  good  in 
itself,  when  properly  employed,  but  also  a  good,  abso- 
lutely necessary  as  a  constituent  for  the  happiness 
and  perfection  of  the  higher  order  of  beings.     From 
the  certainty  of  this  fact,  then,  we  may,  perhaps, 
venture  humbly  to  surmise  why  this  seeming  anomaly 
was  allowed  by  a  wise  and  good  Providence  to  occur 
in  his  creation.     Why,  it  is  asked,  was  not  man  pre- 
cluded from  the  possibility  of  taking  the  fatal  step 
which  produced  his  fall  ?     It  were  presumptuous  in 
us  to  attempt  to  answer  this  question,  excepting  in 
the  strictest  form  of  diffident  conjecture.     Still,  how- 
ever, we  know  from  the  words  of  the  two  inspired 
apostles,  Paul  and  Peter,  that  the  expiatory  atone- 
ment of  Christ  was  prepared  in  the  councils  of  Infinite 
Wisdom  before  the  foundations  of  the  world  were 
laid.      We  are,  therefore,  justified  in  inferring,  that 
when   the   Creator   in   his  mercy  condescended  to 
forewarn  the  parents  of  the  human  race  of  the  immi- 
nent peril   in   which   their   violation  of  a  salutary 
admonition  would  involve  them  and  their  posterity, 
he  not  only  foresaw  their  disobedience,  but  also  pre- 
pared an  arrangement  for  averting  from  them  the 

6 


62 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


i 


consequences  naturally  resulting  from  it.  And  not 
only  may  we,  in  conformity  with  the  strict  letter  of 
Scripture,  infer  thus  much,  but  we  may  also  indulge 
in  a  reasonable  expectation  that  the  change  which 
has  thus  taken  place  in  the  allotment  of  mankind 
will  ultimately  prove  to  have  been  rather  a  gain  than 
a  loss  to  such  persons  as  shall  have  duly  availed 
themselves  of  the  means  afforded  for  their  restoration , 
and  that  the  redeemed  servants  of  Christ  will  be 
found  to  have  exchanged  the  humbler  condition  of 
simply  happy  and  innocent  beings  upon  earth  for  a 
preeminent  state  of  moral  apprehension,  and  of  ex- 
quisite enjoyment  in  heaven,  far  exceeding  that  of 
the  station  which  they  have  lost.  It  is  very  remark- 
able that  two  favourite  and  ingenious  apologues  pre- 
vailed among  the  heathen  philosophers  of  antiquity, 
both  of  them  having  reference  to  the  introduction  of 
evil  by  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  and  which 
would  seem  to  have  been  suggested  to  their  inventors 
by  the  scriptural  narrative  of  the  fall  of  our  tirst 
parents.  The  beautiful  fable  of  the  guilty  curiosity 
and  subsequent  wanderings  of  Psyche,  until  her  final 
reconciliation  with  her  divine  husband ;  and  that  of 
Prometheus,  particularly  as  it  is  given  in  the  terribly 
splendid  drama  of  jEschylus ;  each  of  them  clearly 
point  to  this  important  fact.  If  not  actually  derived 
from  Scripture,  they,  at  all  events,  show,  by  their 
remarkable  coincidence  with  one  another,  and  with 
the  Mosaic  history,  that  the  hypothesis  to  which  they 
refer  is  a  correct  inference  from  the  philosophy  of 
morals. 

Such,  then,  is  the  account  which  the  Bible  gives  of 
the  first  orisrin  of  those  strans^e  anomalies  in  the  moral 
character  of  human  nature,  the  real  existence  of 
which,  as  essential  phenomena  demonstrably  attach- 
ing to  us,  the  most  determined  infidel  must  at  all 
events  admit,  however  he  may  be  disposed  to  ques- 
tion the  mode  of  their  first  introduction.  Here,  then, 
it  remains  to  be  asked  whether,  granting  our  consti- 


\   .. 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


68 


tution   to  be  actually  such,  there  is  any  intrmsic 
improbability  in  the  account  thus  given.     The  great 
and  staggering  improbability  is,  that  man  should  be 
what  we' find  that  he  is.     This,  however,  is  not  a 
point  which  admits  of  discussion.     It  is  a  simple 
matter  of  fact,  respectins:  the  certainty  of  which  it  is 
impossible  to  doubt.     Such,  then,  being  the  case,  the 
question  really  at  issue  between  the  believer  and  the 
sceptic  is,  whether  it  is  more  consistent  with  our 
notions    of  the  probable  proceedings  of  Providence 
that  the  discordant  principles  which  are  known   to 
exist  within  us  should  be  supposed  to  have  been  su- 
perinduced at  a  period  subsequent  to  man's  creation, 
than  that  he  should  have  originally  proceeded   such 
as  he  now  is,  from  the  hands  of  his  Maker.     This  is 
surelv   a   point   upon   which,  independently  of  the 
authority  of  revelation,  it  were  presumptuous  to  form 
an  opinion.     But  certainly  there  is  nothing  contradic- 
tory to  sound  reason  in  supposing  the  former  to  have 
been  the  fact.     That  the  flesh  is  found  experimentally 
to  be  at  variance  with  the  spirit,  suggests,  at  all  events, 
a  presumption  that  they  were  not  fitted  originally 
the  one  for  the  other  ;  whilst,  at  the  same  time,  admit- 
ting' the  truth  of  the  scriptural  theory,  that  this  lite 
in  Fts  present  modification  is  intended  to  be  a  state 
of  probation,  the  secondary  arrangement  which  has 
thus  been  allowed  to  come  into  operation  is  found  to 
harmonize  with  all  that  we  can  infer  as  the  most 
probable  solution  of  other  difficulties  connected  with 
the  mysterious  dealings  of  Providence.     To  the  mis- 
representation, then,  of  the  infidel,  who  asserts  it  to 
be  the  doctrine  of  Scripture,  that  the  eternal  perdition 
of  all  mankind  is  a  just  retribution  attaching  to  each 
individual  of  the  human  race  for  one  single  act  ot 
disobedience  committed  in  the  persons  of  their  hrst 
parents,  the  answer  is  obvious.     Scripture  inculcates 
no  such  doctrine.      It  tells  us,  indeed,  (and  every 
Christian  is  bound  to  admit  the  strict  accuracy  ot  the 
assertion,)  that  by  one  act  of  disobedience  sin  came 


64 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


65 


li 


into  the  world,  and  by  sin,  death.  But  such  would 
also  have  been  equally  the  case  had  the  first  human 
beings  derived  to  themselves,  and  transmitted  through 
their  own  persons  to  their  descendants,  a  knowledge 
of  moral  good  and  evil,  with  a  mechanism  of  corrupt 
passions,  by  any  other  specific  process  than  that 
recorded  by  Moses.  So  long  as  our  sense  of  right 
and  wrong  is  accurate,  whilst,  at  the  same  time,  the 
spirit  of  disobedience  is  strong  within  us,  sin,  how- 
ever at  first  introduced,  will  continue  to  prevail ;  and 
where  sin  is,  there  its  natural  consequences  must  be 
presumed  to  follow,  unless  such  a  result  can  be  shown 
to  be  superseded  by  some  effectual  counteraction, 
such  as  every  Christiaja  believes  to  be  afforded  by  the 
expiatory  merits  of  his  Saviour.  Of  one  thing  we 
may  be  quite  certain,  namely,  that  had  any  other 
explanation  of  the  first  origin  of  sin  and  death  been 
given  to  us,  it  would  have  been  as  unsparingly  cri- 
ticised, and  as  dogmatically  rejected  by  the  sceptic, 
as  that  which  we  are  taught  to  receive  as  the  correct 
historical  fact.  At  the  same  time,  we  may  venture 
confidently  to  assert,  that  it  would  be  difficult,  if  not 
impossible,  for  the  imagination  to  invent  a  theory 
more  exactly  accordant  with  what  we  know  by  ex- 
perience of  our  own  nature,  than  that  which  has  thus 
come  to  us  under  the  presumed  sanction  of  revelation. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Of  the  History  of  the  general  Deluge,  and  the  Confusion  of  Tongues, 

Few,  if  any,  physical  facts  appear  more  difficult  to 
account  for,  upon  any  known  principles  of  experi- 
mental science,  than  that  of  the  general  deluge,  as 
asserted  in  Scripture ;  and  yet,  perhaps,  there  is  not 
one  of  those  which  do  not  fall  within  the  course  of 
our  own  actual  experience,  the  absolute  certainty 
of  which  is  more  completely  demonstrated  by  the 
traces  left  of  its  existence  upon  the  surface  of  the 
globe.  It  is  the  opinion  of  most  geologists  that 
several  submersions  of  the  crust  of  the  earth,  in  whole 
or  in  part,  have  taken  place  from  time  to  time  in  the 
course  of  the  order  of  nature.  All  of  them,  however, 
appear  to  be  unanimously  agreed  that  one  deluge  at 
least,  answering  exactly  to  that  recorded  by  Moses, 
did  certainly  prevail  at  a  period  subsequent  to  the 
creation  of  the  present  races  of  animals,  whose  relics 
are  still  found  in  vast  abundance  in  the  most  recent 
strata.  It  is,  therefore,  perfectly  vain  to  start  objec- 
tions, derived  from  abstract  speculations  of  our  own 
creation,  against  the  physical  possibility  of  an  event, 
the  certainty  of  which  has  been  thus  substantiated  by 
irrefragable'evidence.  From  the  case  in  question, 
however,  we  may  at  all  events  derive  an  important 
lesson  with  regard  to  any  sceptical  doubts  which, 
from  the  presumed  certainty  of  the  conclusions  of 
experimental  science,  we  may  feel  disposed  to  enter- 
tain on  the  subject  of  other  perternatural  occurrences 
related  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Were  we  to  have 
recourse  to  theory  alone,  we  no  doubt  should  have 
little  hesitation  in  pronouncing  upon  the  extreme 
improbability,  not  to  say  the  impossibility,  of  a  deluge, 
such  as  that  which  we  read  of  in  the  writings  of 

6^ 


'J 


liM 


66 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


fi 


?, 


I 


Moses.  Voltaire,  who  took  up  this  ground,  but  whose 
knowledge  in  experimental  philosophy  was  too  super- 
ficial to  render  his  objections  formidable,  asserts  boldly 
the  demonstration  of  the  falsity  of  the  scriptural  nar- 
rative. "  The  physical  impossibility ^^^  he  says,  '*of  a 
universal  deluge  by  any  natural  means  is  proveable  by 
the  most  rigorous  demonstration.^^  It  is  amusing  to 
observe  that  he  lays  down,  as  the  first  principle  on 
which  to  build  this  rigorous  course  of  proof,  the  pal- 
pably unfounded  assertion,  that  the  average  depth  of 
the  ocean  does  not  exceed  500  feet.  Upon  the  as- 
sumption of  this  position,  accompanied  by  the  gratui- 
tous one  that  the  relative  depths  and  elevation  of  the 
bed  of  the  ocean,  and  of  the  adjoining  continents  are, 
under  all  circumstances,  incapable  of  any  variation, 
the  necessity  of  the  conclusion  to  which  he  would 
arrive  seems  indeed  sufficiently  obvious.  In  answer 
again  to  the  supposition  that  the  submersion  of  the 
earth  to  the  depth  asserted  by  Scripture,  could  be 

Eroduced  by  rain  discharged  from  the  atmosphere,  it 
as  been  shown  by  other  writers,  (and  in  this  case,  on 
correct  philosophical  principles)  not  only  that  the  time 
required  to  produce  such  a  mass  of  water  from  tha! 
source  would  be  much  longer  that  the  scriptural 
account  would  appear  to  allow,  but  also  that  even  if 
the  entire  atmosphere  with  all  its  contents,  were 
condensed  into  water,  the  whole  volume,  thus  pro- 
duced, would  not  occasion  a  deluge  much  exceeding 
thirty  feet  in  height.  In  the  hope  of  meeting  this 
objection,  other  theories  have  been  suggested  from 
time  to  time,  such  as  that  of  a  change  in  the  inclina- 
tion of  the  earth's  axis,  an  alteration  in  the  rate  of 
its  diurnal  rotation,  the  attraction  of  a  comet,  and 
other  causes  of  a  similar  nature,  founded  upon  the 
presumed  established  facts  of  modern  experimental 
science.  It  is,  however,  generally  admitted  that 
none  of  these  ingenious  and  well-intentioned  sugges- 
tions are  in  all  respects  satisfactory.  After  all  we 
must  be  content  to  learn  on  this,  as  on  almost  every 


\Sx 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


67 


other  theological  subject,  a  lesson  of  salutary  humility, 
and  to  abide  by  the  demonstration  which  we  possess 
of  the  actual  certainty  of  the  recorded  event,  without 
hoping  to  explain  what  resources  Divine  Providence 
may  have  in  store,  in  the  magazine  of  secondary 
causes  for  the  operation  of  its  ends. 

"  There  are  more  things  in  Heaven  and  earth,  Horatio, 
Than  are  dreampt  of  in  your  philosophy." 

Still,  however,  without  attempting  to  propose  any 
thing  like  a  solution  of  the  difficulties  which  beset 
this '^subject,  we  may  venture  to  observe,  that  the 
assertion,  which  has  been  so  confidently  made,  that 
the  whole  globe  of  the  earth,  and  the  whole  atmos- 
phere united,  do  not  contain  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  fluid  for  such  a  submersion  of  the  earth,  as  that 
related  in  Scripture,  is  any  thing  rather  than  borne 
out  by  the  most  accurate  calculations  of  men  of 
science.     Scripture  declares  that  the  breaking  up  of 
the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  was  made   to  co- 
operate on  that  occasion  with  the  descent  of  rain ; 
or,  as  it  is  styled  in  revelation,  the  opening  of  the 
windows  of  heaven.     The  present  proportion  of  the 
surface  of  the  sea,  as  compared  with  that  of  the  land, 
is  crenerally  estimated  as  two  parts  in  three.     With 
re<^ard   to  the  actual  extreme  depth  of  the  ocean, 
nolhint'  can  be  inferred  beyond  probable  conjectures. 
No  soundings,  from  the  operation  of  well  known 
causes,  have  ever  descended  much  beyond  a  mile,  but 
Uiere  is  strong  reason  for  believing  that  the  mean 
depth  very  far  exceeds  that  amount.     There  woiild, 
perhaps,  be  no  improbability  in  the  supposition  which 
would  consider  six  miles  as  the  mean  depth,     lie 
that,  however,  as  it  may,  there  is  every  reason  to 
suppose  that  the  solid  surface  of  the  earth  has,  sub- 
sequently to  its  creation,  undergone  violent  changes 
affecting  its  partial  elevation  and  depression.    Were 
then  the  present  bed  of  the  ocean  raised  by  any  strong 
subterranean  action,  to  the  level  of  the  adjoining 


*' 


u^ 


68 


CONSISTENCY  OF  REVELATION 


WITH  HUHAN   REASON, 


69 


^1 

i 


continents,  the  deluge  produced  would  most  probably 
at  least  equal  that  related  by  Moses ;  or  again  the 
same  effect  might  in  great  measure  be  produced  by 
the  depression  of  the  land  itself;  or  in  the  third  place, 
we  may  imagine  both  causes  cooperating  on  the  oc- 
casion alluded  to.  The  most  plausible  surmise  we 
can  make,  both  with  reference  to  the  language  of 
Scripture,  and  in  explanation  of  existing  phenomena, 
seems  to  be  that  some  important  change  was  pro- 
duced at  that  important  epoch  upon  the  surface  ol  the 
globe,  by  which  the  relative  proportion  of  land  and 
sea  became  permanently  altered.  What  that  change 
was,  however,  it  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  form 
a  well-grounded  opinion.  There  appears  to  be  some 
warrant  in  Scripture  for  the  supposition  that  rain  was 
unknown  in  the  antediluvian  ages.  At  least  the 
appearance  of  the  rainbow  upon  the  subsidence  of 
the  waters  of  the  deluge,  is  described  in  a  manner  to 
leave  the  impression  oi  its  being  the  first  occurrence 
of  that  phenomenon  ;  and  with  regard  to  the  state  of 
the  world  before  the  fall  of  our  first  parents,  it  is  ex- 
pressly asserted  that  *'  no  rain  fell  from  the  heavens 
in  those  days,  but  there  went  up  a  dew  which  watered 
the  ground,"  whilst  no  intimation  is  given  that  this 
state  of  things  was  altered  till  the  time  of  the  deluge. 
We  can,  however,  account  for  the  absence  of  rain 
upon  any  known  natural  principles  only,  by  the  sup- 
position that  the  proportion  of  sea,  as  compared  with 
that  of  dry  land  was  much  less  in  the  antediluvian 
ages,  than  it  has  been  subsequently  to  that  crisis. 
The  diminished  evaporation  which  would  take  place 
under  such  circumstances,  would  apparently  produce 
the  result  now  supposed.  So  long  as  the  earth  was 
only  thinly  and  partially  peopled,  such  a  state  of  things 
as  that  here  surmised  would  not  be  incompatible  with 
the  wants  of  mankind,  though  it  would  be  perfectly 
inconsistent  with  the  general  diffusion  of  population 
over  the  whole  globe.  The  change  which  took  place 
at  that  same  period,  in  the  average  duration  of  human 


life,  would  also  seem  to  indicate  some  alteration  of  a 
permanent  character  in  the  condition  of  man's  abode 
upon  earth,  less  favourable  to  our  animal  powers. 
That  change,  we  may  observe,  though  immediate  m 
a  very  great  proportion,  was  not  total  and  complete, 
till  after  the  lapse  of  a  considerable  time  subsequent 
to  Noah :  a  circumstance  which  well  accords  with  the 
hypothesis  above  stated,  since  it  is  natural  to  suppose 
that  the  stronger  stimulus  of  vitality  would  not  yield 
immediately  to  the  operation  of  changes  m  climate  or 
other  similar  causes,  but  would  adapt  itself  gradually, 
and  through  successive  generations,  to  its  new  posi- 
tion, until  it  had  reached  the  maximum  of  depression, 
at  which  it  would  remain  stationary.   This,  however, 
with  all  the  foregoing  conjectures,  be  it  remembered, 
we  give  strictly  and  simply  as  such.     Most  probably, 
after  all,  they  are  v^ry  far  from  meeting  the  real  ditft- 
culty  of  the  case.     The  real  and  substantial  proots 
of  the  Mosaic  deluge  are  the  records  of  its  occurrence 
indelibly  and    unanswerably   impressed    upon    the 
earth's  surface ;  and  they  are  completely  satisfactory. 
If  we  have  ventured  to  add  any  confirmatory  sug- 
gestions of  our  own,  let  them  be  considered  as  in- 
tended rather  to  show  the  utter  futility  of  the  objec- 
tions of  the  infidel,  than  to  throw  light  upon  what, 
at  least  in  the  present  state  of  science,  must  be  con- 
sidered an  inexplicable  mystery.      ^  ^  ,  .      ,      ^    . 
The  confusion  of  languages  at  Babel  is  the  first 
important  event  related  in  Scripture,  as  occurring 
after  the  period  of  the  deluge.    The  Mosaic  statement 
is  altogether  so  mysterious  as  scarcely  to  admit  ot 
any  explanatory  conjecture.      It  may,  however    be 
incidentally  observed,  that  if  we  take  into  considera- 
tion  the  known  instinctive  attachment  of  mankind  to 
their  native  soil,  their  tendency  to  congregate  toge- 
ther in  large  communities,  and  the  destructive  feuds 
which  would  arise  in   an  overcrowded  population, 
where  each  person  would  be  rather  disposed  to  expel 
his  neighbour,  at  any  cost,  than  to  remove  the  incon- 


u 


A  S-i 


70 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


i 


venient  pressure  by  his  own  voluntary  emigration,  we 
can  scarcely  imagine  any  means  so  well  adapted  to 
counteract  what,  at  that  peculiar  period  of  the  world, 
would  have  operated  as  a  mischievous  propensity, 
and  to  promote  a  voluntary  colonization  in  other  dis- 
tricts without  either  animosity  or  bloodshed,  as  the 
introduction  of  the  momentary  inconvenience  result- 
ing from  the  misapprehension  of  each  other's  lan- 
guage. Scripture,  it  is  true,  does  not  assign  this  or 
any  reason,  for  the  miracle ;  of  course,  therefore,  it 
can  be  mentioned  only  as  a  mere  surmise,  founded 
upon  the  known  propensities  of  human  nature,  and 
upon  the  assumption  that  Providence  avails  itself,  for 
the  most  part,  of  existing  secondary  causes,  for  the 
furtherance  of  its  ends,  which  it  would  be  absurd  to 
advance  with  any  degree  of  confidence. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Of  the  intftrnal  ProhahVity  of  the  peculiar  Revelation  of  the  Divine 
Will  contained  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  and  of  the  moral  tendency 
of  that  Revelation. 

/ 

It  is  certain  that  the  natural  tendency  of  the 
hiiman  heart,  in  the  absence  of  any  external  religious 
stimulus,  such  as  that  of  a  positive  Divine  revelation 
existing  under  solemn  and  authoritative  sanctions,  is 
to  fall  into  a  total  forgetfulness  of  its  Creator,  and  an 
indifference  to  all  but  corporeal  objects.  This  is  one 
of  those  truths,  for  the  reality  of  which  we  may  con- 
fidently appeal  to  the  whole  past  experience  of  man- 
kind. Man,  from  the  period  of  his  first  existence, 
appears  necessarily  to  have  stood  in  need  of  some 
mode  of  direct  communication  with  his  Maker,  it 
being  perfectly  demonstrable  that  there  is  nothing  in 
the  resorts  of  unassisted  reason  capable  of  filling  up 
that  void  in  our  moral  and  intellectual  faculties  which 
would  be  left  by  the  substraction  of  the  aids  of  reve- 


.4 


i 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON.  71 

lation.     When  this  last  help  is  wanting,  the  total 
degradation  of  our  nature  is  the  invariable  conse- 
quence.    On  the  other  hand,  we  must  be  prepared  in 
candour  to  admit,  that  as  such  a  systematic  commu- 
nication with  the  Divine  Being,  as  that  now  assumed 
to  be  necessary,  implies  nothing  less  than  the  opera- 
tion of  a  continuity  of  miracles,  there  is  certainly,  at 
first  sight,  a  semblance  of  improbability,  and,  as  it 
would  almost  appear,  of  clumsiness  of  contrivance,  in 
a  system  which  would  seem  to  require  the  constant 
direct  interference  of  its  Author  for  the  preservation 
of  order,  or  the  prevention  of  derangement.     Here, 
however,  as  before,  we  are  precluded  from  the  adop- 
tion of  our  own  more  plausible  theories,  as  to  what 
things  ought  to  be,  by  the  obstinacy  of  unanswerable 
facts.     In  discussing  the  arguments  for  and  against 
revelation  in  general,  we  are  reduced  to  the  necessity 
of  choosing  between  two  alternatives.      We  must 
either,  in  the  one  case,  suppose   human   nature  to 
have  been   left  by  its  Creator  entirely  to   its  own 
moral  and  intellectual  resources,  in  which  event  we 
see  nothing  before  us  but  the  most  fearful  state  of 
spiritual  abandonment  and  degradation;  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  must  be  ready  to  admit  the  probability 
of  some  direct   interposition  of  Providence,   incul- 
cating some  positive  code  of  moral  laws ;  and  thus 
coming,  to  a  certain  degree,  into  collision  with  man's 
free  agency,  and  the  seemingly  established  order  of 
the  universe.     Actual  and  uniform  experience,  we 
repeat,  has  shown  the  total  untenableness  of  any 
intermediate  theory.    It  is  evident,  however,  that  the 
difficulty  here  is  full  as  great  (if  not  infinitely  greater) 
on  the  side  of  scepticism  as  on  that  which  assumes 
the  necessity  of  a  system  of  revelation  for  our  spirit- 
tlal  guidance.     We  see,  it  is  true,  no  a  priori  reason 
why  man  should  have  been   created  such  as  he  is, 
but  being  such,  our  course  of  argument,  in  order  to  be 
correct,  must  adopt  that  admission  as  an  elementary 
truth.     Now,  if  the  report  of  Scripture  be  correct,  th« 


i 


72 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON* 


73 


course  which  Providence  in  its  wisdom  has  pursnetl 
from  the  first,  has  been  to  arrive  at  its  important 
object,  the  elevation  and  instruction  of  our  species, 
by  the  least  possible  deviation  from  the  ordinary- 
course  of  events,  and  by  interfering,  in  the  smallest 
degree  possible,  with  the  free-will  of  man.   A  revela- 
tion, under  some  form  other,  appears  from  the  com- 
mencement of  the  world  to  have  been  offered  to,  but 
never  obtruded  upon,  mankind.     The  human  race 
have  ever  been  left  free  to  adopt  or  to  reject,  to  make 
their  election  between  good  and  evil.     In  every  suc- 
cessive  age,  accordingly,   the  primitive  distinction 
between  the  sons  of  God  and  the  children  of  men 
seems  to  have  existed.    The  Almighty  has  uniformly 
disclosed  himself  sufficiently  to  be  found  out  by  those 
who  seek  him,  but  insufficiently  for  the  apprehension 
of  those  whose  minds  have  been  otherwise  employed 
in  the  selfish  pursuits  of  mere  worldly  enjoyment. 
Such,  according  to  the  Mosaic  account,  was  undoubt- 
edly the  condition  of  the  antediluvian  generations  ; 
such  was  that  of  the  early  patriarchal  ages ;  such 
was  that,  on  a  more  extended  scale,  of  the  Jews, 
under  the  Levilical  institutions ;  and  such  it  is  at  the 
present  moment  in  the  consummation  of  revelation 
under  the  Christian  covenant.     In  no  one  period  has 
God  left  himself  without  some  record  of  his  existence 
and  attributes ;  the  blessing,  indeed,  has  been  une- 
qually diffused,  and  whilst  a  large  portion  of  mankind 
have  been  allowed  to  continue  with  no  other  spiritual 
guidance   than  that  of  their  own  instinctive  moral 
sense,  some  few  select  communities  have  been  set 
as  a  beacon  on  a  hill  for  the  diffusion  of  the  light  of 
revealed  truth  to  all  who  were  disposed  to  profit  by  it. 
Now  it  were  indeed  presumptuous  to  say  that  Pro^ 
vidence  has  selected  this  as  the  only  possible  course 
between   conflicting   difficulties:    but  it  is  at   least 
incumbent  upon  those  who  calumniate  this  arrange- 
ment as  both  partial  and  inadequate  for  the  occasion, 
to  show  how  the  first  elements  of  sound  religion 


4 
1 


could  have  been  kept  alive  during  a  long  course  of 
ages  of  comparative  barbarism,  with  any  thing  less 
than  this  presumed  degree  of  direct  Divine  inter- 
ference, or  how  human  free  agency,  which  constitutes 
the  basis  of  every  rational  notion  of  religion,  could 
have  been  compatible  with  more»     Truth  we  know 
to  be  uniform  and  self-consistent,   but  the  human 
powers  of  the  apprehension  of  truth  vary  with  every 
modification  of  society,  and  with  every  progress  of 
knowledge.     What  exact  degree  of  revelation,  there- 
fore, is  adapted  to  meet  the  circumstances  and  wants 
of  our  nature,  under  all  its  possible  varieties  of  aspect, 
is  a  problem  much  loo  intricate  for  mortal  wisdom  to 
solve.  The  divine  mind,  which  knows  all  the  internal 
machinery  of  our  hearts,  is  alone  equal  to  that  task* 
One  thing,  however,  even  tve  may  venture  to  assert, 
namely,  that  the  brightest  effulgence  of  revealed  truth 
is  not  fitted  for  the  earliest  and  rudest  state  of  human 
existence.  Under  such  circumstances  neither  could  its 
momentous  value  be  duly  appreciated,  nor  its  records 
adequately  and  correctly  transmitted,  to  succeedmg 
times.     The  very  immensity  of  the  importance  of 
Christianity,  then,  as  a  final  and  complete  system  of 
revelation,  Avouid  obviously  seem  to  require  that  its 
first  communication  to  mankind  should  have  beeri 
postponed  until  the  world,  from  the  more  advanced 
state  of  knowledo^e,  should  be  prepared  to  receive  it. 
But,  upon  this  supposition,  what  might  not  be  the 
pernicious  effects  produced  by  a  total  suspension  ot 
the  communication  of  Divine  knowledge  upon  the 
reli<^ious  habits  of  societv  in  the  ages  antecedent  to 
such  a  communication  !  'We  know  sufficiently,  froin 
past  history,  to  what  a  thoroughly  debasing  state  ot 
irreligion  and  idolatry  the  human  mind  necessarily 
descends,  in  the  absence  of  the  adventitious  help  ot 
revelation.     Here,  then,  appears  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  some  intermediate  form  of  revelation,  ot  some 
provisional   system  less  perfect  than  that  destined 
ultimately  to  supersede  it,  but  stiU  worthy  of  Divuae 


A}v 


i 


74 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


75 


I 


M 


I 


fi 


providence,  and  well  adapted  to  cooperate  with  the 
existing  state  of  knowledge,  and  the  varied  grada- 
tions of  society,  in  the  earlier  portion  of  man's  history. 
Such  an  arrangement,  admitting  the  Divine  origin 
and  the  correctness  of  the  history  of  Christianity,  we 
should  naturally  look  for,  and  such  an  arrangement, 
the  Old  Testament  assures  us,  did  accordingly  exist. 
But  the  system  pursued  by  Providence  is  always  one 
of  strict  uniformity  with  itself,  and  the  leading  cha- 
racteristic of  that  uniformity  is  the  availing  itself  of 
the  operation  of  secondary  causes,  so  long  as  those 
causes  are  adequate,  for  the  accomplishment  of  its 
purpose.     Even  in  a  system,  therefore,  of  positive 
miraculous  interventions,  we  should,  in  reason,  ex- 
pect to  find  no  gratuitous  or  superfluous  display  of 
miracles.    This,  again,  accords  exactly  with  what  we 
read  in  Scripture.     The  light  of  true  religion  Avas  not 
allowed  to  become  extinct  during  the  long  course  ot 
ages  which  preceded  Christianity,  but  still  the  strict 
necessity  of  the  case  was  the  measure  of  the  actual 
deviation  from  the  ordinary  course  of  natural  events. 
This  remark  will  serve  to  account  for,  and  to  justify, 
that  appearance  of  partiality  in  the  selection  of  indi- 
vidual persons  and  tribes,  as  the  vehicles  of  revelation, 
which  characterizes  the  earlier  recorded  intercourse 
of  God  with  his  creatures.     In  the  antediluvian  and 
patriarchal  ages  religion  could  have  been  diffused 
over  the  whole  human  race,  only  by  a  series  of  con- 
tinuous miracles,  inconsistent,  so  far  as  we  judge, 
with  the  usual  purposes  of  the  Divine  government. 
On   the  other  hand,  the  selection  of  first  a  single 
family,  and  afterwards  of  a  single  nation,  as  the  de- 
positaries of  religious  knowledge,  appears  to  be  a  far 
less  startling  deviation  from  the  usual  order  of  nature, 
whilst,  from  the  singleness  of  purpose,  of  which  such 
an  arrangement  was  more  peculiarly  capable,  it  was 
likely  to%e  more  efiicient  for  the  preservation  and 
accurate  transmission  of  those  truths,  the  perpetua- 
ting of  which  was  so  essentially  important. 


> 


If,  however,  there  is  nothing  repugnant  to  reason 
in  the  supposition   that  certain  individuals,  in  the 
earlier  period  of  the  world,  might  have  been  selected 
as  instruments  for  the  guardianship  of  revealed  truth, 
it  would  also  appear  probable,  that  the  rule  which 
would  direct  the  choice  of  this  or  that  person  would 
not  be  merely  the  moral  excellence  of  the  parties  thus 
chosen,  but  also  their  peculiar  fitness,  from  other 
adventitious  circumstances,  for  the  task  thus  entrusted 
to  them.     This  observation,  if  correct,  will  serve  to 
explain  some  apparent  anomalies  in  Scripture,  result- 
ing from  what  is  there  related  of  the  characters  of 
some  of  the  influential  personages  whose  history  it 
records.     It  is  reasonable,  indeed,  to  suppose,  that  the 
Divine  Being,  in  making  his  selection  of  the  persons 
whom  he  destined  to  be  the  depositaries  of  his  will, 
would  give  the  preference  to  those  whose  piety  and 
good  conduct  would  seem  specially  to  entitle  them  to 
that  high  distinction.     And  such,  in  fact,  appears  to 
have  been  the  case,  with  regard  to  his  choice  of  the 
first  founders  of  the  Israelitish  nation.     In  the  cir- 
cumstances related  of  Abraham,  we  recognise   the 
traces  of  one  of   the  most  singularly  amiable  and 
pious  dispositions  on  record.    Of  Isaac  little  is  related, 
but  that  little  is  calculated  to  afford  the  same  favour- 
able impression  of  his  character;  and  if  in  the  early 
history  of  Jacob  we  cannot  but  recognise  some  traits 
of  human  infirmity,  all  that  is  recorded  of  the  latter 
period  of  his  life  is,  at  all  events,  precisely  such  as 
we  can  ima<?ine  to  be  likely  to  conciliate  the  Divine 
favour.     Still,  however,  we  should  recollect,  that  both 
these  men  and  their  descendants  were,  in  fact,  only 
the  machinery  by  which  the  Almighty  accomplished 
his  will,  and  that  the  distinction  thus  conferred  upon 
them  had  not  any  necessary  and  inseparable  reference 
tu  their  personal  deserts.     This  observation,  so  far 
as  it  regards  the  Jews,  the  Old  Testament,  with  a 
remarkable  caution,  as  if  specially  to  guard  against 
the  possibility  of  misapprehension,  repeats  again  and 


i 


76 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


77 


II' 


a<rain,  reminding  them  that  they  were  a  stiff-necked 
generation,  chosen  for  no  merit  of  their  own,  but 
merely  as  instruments  in  the  hand  of  Divme  power, 
raised  up  for  a  specific  purpose,  and  forming,  almost 
unconsciously,  a  necessary  link  in  the  chain  ot  the 
arrangements  of  Providence.     The  decree  to  which 
this  unquestionable  fact  has  been  overlooked  by  the 
enemies  of  Christianity,  is  another  strong  proof  out 
of  the  many,  of  the  extreme  unfairness  with  which 
infidelity  has  brought  its  charges  against  revelation. 
It  is  in  vain  that  Scripture  deprecates  this  misappli- 
cation of  its  doctrine;   that  it  asserts  the  absolute 
equality  and  impartiality  of  God's  moral  government, 
and  that  it  relates  from  time  to  time  the  tremendous 
penal  inflictions  which  befel  these  seemingly  favoured 
men,  where  their  moral  demerits  called  down  the 
visitation.      The  handle  is  too  plausible  a  one  lor 
the  adversaries  of  revealed  truth  to  relinquish,  and 
they  have,  accordingly,  down  to  our  own  time,  uni- 
formly  availed  themselves  of  it :  with  what  regard  to 
accuracy  and  legitimate  argument,  let  those  judge 
who  have  most  anxiously  studied  that  mysterious 
volume  so  much  calumniated,  but  so  little  understood. 
Granting,  then,  the  necessity  of  a  series  of  pro- 
visional  and  comparatively  imperfect  revelations  of 
the  Divine  will  prior  to  the  full   developement  ot 
Christianity,  and  assuming,  as  we  have  done  through 
the   whole  of  the  preceding  argument,  that  Gods 
ordinary  course  of  proceeding  is  that  of  availing  him- 
self  of  the  established  course  of  secondary  causes, 
and  even  of  turning  the  bad  passions  of  mankind  to 
account  for  the  production  of  good,  and  the  further- 
ance of  his  own  gracious  designs,  we  surelv  cannot 
but  remark  a  consistency,  and  a  strong  confirmatory 
internal  evidence,  in  those  peculiar  modes  of  revela- 
tion which  the  more  ancient  historical  books  of  the 
Old   Testament  assert  to  have  taken  place   in  the 
early  ages:  a  consistency,  because  it  accords  exactly 
with  what  we  have  every  reason  to  infer  of  the  deal» 


ings  of  Providence  at  the  present  moment;  and  an 
internal  evidence,  because,  though  we  conceive  the 
system  pursued  to  be  entirely  in  harmony  with  the 
real  order  of  the  universe,  we  admit  it  to  be  unlike 
what  any  inventor  of  a  fictitious  revelation  would  be 
disposed  to  have  suggested  as  probable.     There  is  a 
homeliness  in  the  aspect  of  real  truth  which  almost 
always  startles  us  at  the  first  aspect.   It  is  only  upon 
collecting  our  thoughts,  and  taking  into  consideration 
the  whole  bearing  of  the  case,  that  we  begin  to  see 
its   appositeness   and  intrinsic   superiority  to  those 
delusive  creatures  of  our  own  imaginations,  ^yhlch 
are  so  apt  to  impose  themselves  upon  us  as  philoso- 
phical principles.     The  question,  then,  now  before 
us  is  simply  this.     The  sceptic  objects  to  the  Holy 
Scriptures  that  they  describe  the  Almighty  as  spe- 
cially protecting,  for  a  long  succession  of  ages,  select 
bodies  of  men  who,  for  aught  that  we  can  perceive, 
had  little  in  their  personal  characters  to  recommend 
them  to  his  favour  above  others,  whom  the  sacred 
historian   passes  over  in  silence.     Even  supposing 
that  we  assent  to  the  accuracy  of  his  statement  thus 
far  we  entirely  deny,  the  inference  which  he  would 
derive  from  it.     We  reply,  that  he  himself,  if  he  be 
really  a  Theist,  acknowledges  the  existence,  at  this 
moment,  of  an  all- wise  and  benevolent  Ruler  of  the 
universe,  and  we  challenge  him  to  try  revelation  by 
the  same  test  which  he  applies  to  the  existing  order 
of  nature.     Does  he  profess  to  doubt  whether  it  can 
be  consistent  with   the  Divine   perfection  to  brin^ 
about  its  ultimate  purposes  by  what  we  call  natural 
causes    and  to  avail  itself  of  human  passions,  and 
even  the  incidental  infirmities  of  human  nature  tor 
the  procuring  of  ultimate  benefits  ?     We  repeat,  that 
the  whole  chain  of  history,  modern  as  well  as  ancient, 
secular  as  well  as  scriptural,  answers  this  question, 
respecting  the  mode  of  God's  government,  m   the 
affirmative.     It  is  no  j  ustification  of  human  guiltiness 
that  the  worst  vices  of  mankind  have  often,  m  direct 


1 


I  i 

r 


f 


*) 


78 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


opposition  to  the  intention  of  the  parties,  led  to  most 
oeneficial  effects  upon  society ;    but  we  know  that 
such  have  been  the  hinges  upon  which  some  of  the 
great  influential  epochs  of  human  improvement  have 
turned.     "  It  is  necessary  that  offences  should  come, 
but  wo  unto  them  by  whom  tliey  come."     Such  is 
the  language  of  the  book  of  revelation,  which  on  this 
point  accords  exactly  with  the  book  of  nature.     Few 
stronger  proofs,  perhaps,  of  the  predominance  of  the 
good  over  the  evil  principle  in  the  regulation  of  the 
universe  can  be  quoted,  than  this  very  tendency,  by 
which  beneficial  results  are  often  seen  to  emanate 
from  the  most  apparently  deleterious  causes.     Ad- 
mitting  that   the   Divine   mind   presides  over,   and 
directs  the  current  of   human  events  (and  on  this 
point  the  theistical  sceptic  and  the  Christian  are  alike 
agreed,)  what  difference  can  it  make  with  reference 
to  that  substantial  fact,  in  what  form  of  words  we 
enunciate  it  as  a  certain  proposition ;   whether  we 
say  with  the  secular  historian,  that  particular  events 
followed  particular  causes,  or  with  the  inspired  pen- 
man, that  God  raised  up  this  or  that  individual,  this 
or  that  nation,  for  the  special  accomplishment  of  his 
will  ?  If  we  see  nothing  to  stagger  our  reliance  upon 
the  Divine  goodness  in  the  fact  that  the  vices  of  the 
Roman  conclave  raised  up  a    Luther,   or   that  the 
licentious  passions  of  Henry  VIII.  planted  the  Pro- 
testant Reformation  in  England,  why  should  we  be 
offended  if  we  find  revelation,  when  giving  the  de- 
tails  of  the  government  of  the  same  Almighty  Being, 
recognising  a  principle  which   presents   no   handle 
for  censure,  when  considered  as  a  branch  of  natural 
theology  ? 

"  If  plai^ues  or  rarthquakcs  break  not  heaven's  design, 
Why  then  a  Borgia,  or  a  Catiline  7 
Who  knows  but  He,  wh(».-t*  hand  the  li£;htning  format 
Who  heaves  old  Ocean,  a.id  who  win^s  the  storins, 
Pours  fierce  ambition  in  a  Cnesar's  mind, 
Or  turns  young  Ammon  loose  to  scourge  mankind  7" 

When  Bolingbroke  suggested  to  Pope  the  sentiment 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


79 


contained  in  the  foregoing  lines,  in  support  of  his 
theory  of  natural  religion,  he  saw  nothing  in  it  which 
his  reason  did  not  assent  to.  It  was  only  when  he 
came  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  evidences  of  revela- 
tion that  he  perceived,  or  fancied  that  he  perceived, 
its  unsoundness. 

It  is  in  vain,  then,  for  the  deistical  impugners  of 
Scripture  to  profess  to  be  offended  by  the  admitted 
vices  of  the  Jewish  people,  or  of  some  of  the  remark- 
able personages  recorded  in  Holy  Writ,  as  inconsistent 
with  the  moral  attributes  of  that  Providence  which  is 
there  declared  to  have  raised  them  to  a  high  state  of 
temporal  elevation,  so  long  as  they  confine  themselves 
to  that  single  charge.      Were  they,  indeed,  able  to 
point  out  in  the  sacred  writings,  anyone  line  express- 
mg  approbation  of  those  vices,  or  attempting  to  throw 
a  veil  over  the  occasional  imperfections  of  even  the 
more  brilliant  characters  of  the  inspired  history,  the 
objection  would  be  undoubtedly  fatal.      The  direct 
contrary  is,  however,  notoriously  the  case.      That 
revelation  gives  an  impartial  portraiture  of  poor  infirm 
human  nature  is  perfectly  true,  and  the  faithfulness 
of  the  resemblance  to  what  we  have  all  experienced, 
is  a  strong  confirmation  of  the  authenticity  of  the 
description.      True,  indeed,  it  is  that  the  successive 
events   there   related  are  given  simply  and  undis- 
guisedly,  as  they  appear  to  have  occurred,  precisely 
as  those  of  any  other  class  of  human  beings,  might  be 
delineated  by   their  respective  historians;   but  the 
narrative  has  this  peculiarity,  which,  without  dero- 
gating from  its  accuracy,  distinguishes  it  from  all  other 
historical  records  whatever  ;  it  never  loses  sight  of  the 
great  face  of  a  Providence  which  superintends  all  human 
events :  a  fact,  we  repeat,  which,  if  secular  writers 
believe  in,  they  have  no  right  to  adduce  as  an  argu- 
ment against  'Scripture,  and  which  if  they  do  not 
believe,  then  they  do  not  come  within  that  description 
of  persons  to  whom  the  present  course  of  argument 
is  addressed> 


H 


m 


1  ( 


80 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


Can,  tKen,  the  sceptic  produce  an  instance  in  which 
the  sacred  writings  speak  of  any  positive  deviation 
from  the  rules  of  morality  in  any  other  terms  than 
those  of  censure  ?  That  he  can  do  so,  we  expressly 
deny.  Would  he  allege  as  an  instance  in  point,  the 
intended  sacrifice  of  Isaac  by  his  father  Abraham  ? — 
for  even  that  noble  and  affecting  example  of  holy 
jfaith  has  been  calumniated  as  a  trait  of  ignorant  and 
sanguinary  superstition.  The  answer  here  is  obvious. 
If  Scripture  be  really  what  it  asserts  itself  to  be,  the 
word  of  God,  the  morality  of  this  specific  case  at 
once  establishes  itself  by  the  mere  statement  of  the 
fact.  Nothing  can  be  more  palpably  certain,  than 
that  He,  who  is  the  great  author  of  life,  has  an  un- 
doubted right  to  resume  his  own  gift;  and,  conse- 
quently, that  not  only  was  that  act  of  unshrinking 
obedience  meritorious  in  Abraham,  as  a  proof  of  his 
faith,  but  also  that  an  exactly  similar  line  of  conduct 
would,  at  this  moment,  be  imperative  upon  ourselves, 
provided  the  command  could  be  as  certainly  and 
explicitly  conveyed  to  us  in  our  own  case  as  we  believe 
it  to  have  been  to  him  in  his.  Here  the  only  point 
at  issue  is,  as  to  the  degree  of  proof  of  the  reality  of 
the  Divine  commission  :  admit  that,  and  the  scrip- 
tural inference  follows  as  a  matter  of  course. 

The  sanguinary  executions  inflicted  upon  the 
idolatrous  Canaanites  again  have  been  dwelt  upon 
with  persevering  acrimony  of  vituperation  by  those 
who  would  prove  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament 
to  be  the  production  of  a  barbarous  and  cruel  period, 
and  obviously  unworthy  of  their  assumed  Divine 
origin.  Here  the  fallacy,  as  in  the  case  of  so  many 
other  questions  of  this  nature,  depends  entirely  upon 
a  garbled  and  imperfect  statement  of  the  facts.  If 
the  Israelites  received  no  commission  to  inflict  these 
tremendous  punishments  upon  their  neighbours,  then, 
indeed,  the  charge  against  the  Deity  falls  to  the 
ground,  but  upon  that  supposition  the  Scriptures  have 
misstated  the  fact,  and  the  Israelites  themselves 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


81 


deserve  the  deepest  reprobation.     If,   however,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  assertion  of  a  special  commission 
from  the  Almighty,  for  that  purpose,  has  been  cor- 
rectly made,  that  admission  at  once  justifies  the  fact. 
Here,  again,  we  refer  the  consistent  Deist,  to  his  own 
principles.      Granting  that  the   destruction  of  the 
Canaanitish   idolaters   must  be  referred  directly  to 
God  himself,  and  not  merely  to  the  appointed  instru* 
ments  of  his  will,  it  remains  for  the  unbeliever  to 
show  in  what  single  circumstance  this  occurrence 
morally  differs  from  other  undoubted  acts  of  Divine 
Providence,  where,  for  some  great  and  perhaps  un* 
traceable  purpose,  the  engines  of  destruction  have 
been  extensively  employed.      Looking  to  the  sacred 
historian,  why  does  the   opponent   of  Christianity, 
whilst  he  makes  this  specific  charge,  neglect  to  in- 
clude, in  the  same  censure,  the  almost  entire  extirpa- 
tion  of  the  human  race,  by  the  universal  deluge,  or 
the  overthrow  of  Sodom,  Gomorrah,  and  the  sur- 
rounding cities?     Looking  to  secular  history,  how 
does  he   account   for  the   occasional  visitations  of 
pestilence,  of  famine,  of  earthquakes?      How  does 
he  reconcile  with  the  government  of  a  wise  and  bene- 
volent ruler  of  the  universe,  the  destruction  of  Pom- 
peii, of  Herculaneum,  of  Stabii,  in  ancient  times,  and 
of  Messina  and  Lisbon  in  modern  ?     Will  he  argue, 
that  it  aggravates  the  charge  against  Scripture,  that 
the  Canaanites  are  declared  to  have  been  justly  piin- 
ished  for  their  crimes,  whilst  we  know  of  no  peculiar 
enormities,  beyond  those  attaching  to  their  neigh- 
bours, which  we  can  lay  to  the  account  of  the  last- 
mentioned  cities,  which  have  been  thus  consigned  to 
destruction  ?     Again  we  repeat,  the  interposition  of 
the  mysterious  veil  which,  in  modern  times,  screens 
from  our  view  the  direct  workings  of  the  Deity,  and 
obliges  us  to  refer  the  course  of  events  to  contingent 
and  secondary  causes,  makes  no  real  difference  in  the 
practical  argument.      What  is  certainly  true  of  the 
God  of  nature,  is  as  assuredly  true  of  the  God  of  the 


82 


CONSISTENCY   0?   REVELATION 


Scriptures,  if,  notwithstanding  the  startling  char- 
acter of  surrounding  circumstances,  the  philoso- 
phical rationalist  can  maintain  his  faith  in  the  former 
unshaken,  he  cannot,  consistently  with  his  own  creed, 
impugn  the  dispensations  of  the  latter. 

But  let  us  examine  this  charge,  which,  by  some 
persons,  is  thought  so  seriously  to  shake  the  authority 
of  revelation,  more  in  detail.  The  believer  in  Chris- 
tianity maintains  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary, 
for  the  general  welfare  of  mankind,  that  the  last 
remnant  of  the  only  true  religion  upon  earth  should 
be  kept  from  total  extinction,  either  by  the  operation 
of  one  continued  miracle,  or  by  the  cooperation  of 
secondary  causes,  during  that  dark  and  protracted 
period  which  was  destined  to  intervene  between  the 
first  settlement  of  the  Israelites  in  Palestine,  and  the 
eventual  promulgation  of  the  covenant  of  the  Gospel. 
The  prevention  of  the  contagion  of  idolatry  by  the 
extinction  of  the  idolaters,  he  contends,  was  the  only 
really  efficacious  means  for  attaining  this  end,  and 
thus  demonstrates,  in  the  first  place,  the  expediency 
of  the  measures  recorded  to  have  been  adopted. 
That  those  measures  were  consistent  with  the  rules 
of  morality,  and  with  the  Divine  justice,  he  proves, 
in  the  next  place,  by  referring  to  the  numerous  acts 
of  infanticide,  the  human  sacrifices,  and  other  fearful 
abominations,  acknowledged  to  have  been  practised 
by  that  denounced  people  ;  and  lastly,  that  the  mea- 
sure now  under  discussion  was  not  a  deviation  from 
the  usual  course  of  the  government  of  Providence,  he 
shows,  by  referring  to  the  extensive  inflictions  which, 
on  other  occasions,  and  even  within  our  own  times, 
have  been  allowed  to  befal  various  portions  of  the 
human  race.  Unless  the  Deist  can  point  out  a  sub- 
stantial distinction  between  the  admissions  contained 
in  his  own  mode  of  belief,  and  these  assumptions  from 
Scripture,  his  argument  obviously  proves  nothing. 
But,  neither  is  the  whole  of  his  objections,  nor  the 
whole  of  our  vindication  of  this  portion  of  revelation, 


WITH  HUMAN   BEASONr 


83 


comprehended  in  the  preceding  remarks.     He  argues, 
that  the  making  any  set  of  human  beings  delegated 
commissioners  for  the  execution  of  the  divine  judg- 
ments, especially  in  the  case  of  the  speculative  pomts 
of  theology,  is,  in   itself,  such  a  handle  afforded  to 
religious   persecution,  that  we   cannot  conceive  so 
dangerous   a   doctrine  to   have  proceeded  from  the 
hallowed  source  of  inspiration.      To  this  we  answer 
that  the  precedent  here  supposed  could  be  iri  pomt 
only  upon  the  recurrence  of  exactly  similar  circum- 
stances, and  in  the  case  of  a  special  Divine  warrant; 
but  the  former  of  these  suppositions  implies  an  impos- 
sibility,  the  latter  an  extreme  improbability.      On 
slighter  grounds  than  these,  no  real  Christian  would, 
any  more  than  the  philosophical  Theist,  advocate  the 
rio-ht  of  extirpating  by  the  sword  erroneous  doctrines 
of  religion.      But  it  will  be  said   that   the   parties 
deputed  on  this  occasion,  as  the  ministers  of  ven- 
geance, were  themselves  nearly  equally  culpable  with 
the  very  idolaters  (and  even  in  the  self-same  acts  of 
irreligion)  for  whose  punishment  they  were  sent. 
Admftting  this  assertion  to  be  correct,  which,  how- 
ever, remains  to  be  proved,  still,  if  it  mean  any  thing, 
it  would  show  that,  as  all  human  beings  are  liable 
to  error,  therefore  no  human  beings  are  capable,  in 
strict  justice,  of  receiving  a  commission  for  inflicting 
any  penai  retribution  upon  others.     Here,  again,  we 
appeal  to  those  principles  of  common  usage  and  obvi- 
ous expediency,  admitted  equally  by  both  parties. 
Can  the  objector,  in  this  case,  recal  to  his  recollec- 
tion no  instances  perfectly  accordant  with  the  sound- 
est reason  and  policy,  of  civil  or  military  discipline, 
where  one  peccant  individual  is  made,  for  the  sake 
of  the  example  which  it  affords  to  himself,  the  instru- 
ment of  punishment  upon  his  more  culpable  confede- 
rates ?      It  has  been  uniformly  asserted  through  the 
whole  of  the  preceding  arguments,  and  we  see  no 
reason  for  being  ashamed  of  the  doctrine,  that  the 
mode  of  Divine  government,  with  reference  to  man- 


S4 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


¥m 


kind,  as  revealed  to  us  in  Scripture,  is  ever  found  to 
be  in  strict  conformity  and  adaptation  to  the  ma- 
chinery of  human  passions.  In  other  words,  that 
God's  dealings  with  mankind  are  fitted  for  mankind* 
The  mere  punishment  of  the  Canaanitish  idolaters^ 
We  have  reason  to  believe,  was  not  the  sole  nor  the 
main  object  of  the  awful  executions  now  alluded  to. 
Other  nations,  both  in  ancient  and  modern  times, 
have,  we  know,  grievously  sinned  as  they  had  done, 
and  yet  have  been  allowed  to  await  the  ordinary  and 
procrastinated  course  of  the  Divine  judgments.  The 
real  end  aimed  at  on  that  occasion  was,  no  doubt, 
the  warning  and  example  afforded  by  these  means  to 
the  wavering  Israelites  themselves.  And  most  fear- 
ful and  appalling  must  that  example  have  proved  to 
their  own  chiding  consciences.  Whether  the  lesson 
thus  practically  taught  them,  respecting  the  grievous 
crime  of  idolatry,  was  more  severe  than  the  actual 
circumstances  required,  is  best  shown  by  considering 
to  what  degree,  after  all,  they  did  really  escape  the 
contagion  of  irreligion,  communicated  by  their  neigh- 
bours. Now  we  know  that  the  apostasy  of  even 
these  chosen  delesjates  of  Divine  retribution  was,  at 
several  periods  oF  their  history,  all  but  complete. 
As,  during  their  wanderings  in  the  desert,  they  looked 
back,  with  regret  and  longing,  to  the  coarse  servile 
fare  of  Egypt,  so,  during  a  large  portion  of  their  resi- 
dence in  the  promised  land,  they  envied  and  imitated 
the  gross  worship  of  their  idolatrous  neighbours,  and 
were  retained  within  the  limits  of  something  resem- 
bling the  pure  religion  taught  from  Mount  Sinai, 
only  by  an  external  circumvallation  of  rites,  and 
isolating  usages,  too  well  contrived  for  even  their 
wayward  obstinacy  to  break  through.  In  the  latter 
period  of  their  history,  immediately  preceding  the 
Chaldean  captivity,  to  such  an  extent  had  the  princi- 

Ele  of  irreligion  prevailed,  that  if  a  remnant  of  true 
elievers  still  existed,  it  was  a  remnant  in  the  strictest 
application  of  the  term ;  men  chased  from  society, 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


85 


and  herding  in  woods  and  rocks,  from  the  persecution 
of  their  apostate  sovereigns.  Still  it  is  remarkable 
that  (he  surrounding  darkness  never  completely  closed 
over  that  remarkable  country,  to  the  total  extinction  of 
the  light  from  heaven.  The  machinery  employed  by 
Providence  for  the  furtherance  of  its  purpose  exactly 
performed  the  work  required  and  no  more.  Had  one 
degree  less  of  severity  been  adopted,  had  the  Mosaic 
ritual  been  rendered  less  exclusive,  and  the  spirit  of 
nationality  less  earnestly  forced  upon  them,  it  cannot 
be  doubted  but  that  the  principle  of  evil  would  have 
finally  prevailed  over  them,  and  our  blessed  Saviour, 
at  his  coming,  would  have  had  to  preach  the  holy 
doctrines  of  the  Gospel  to  a  people  un imbued  with 
the  first  notions  of  sound  theism.  "When  ye  offer 
your  gifts,  when  ye  make  your  sons  to  pass  through 
the  fire,  ye  pollute  yourselves  with  all  your  idols,  even 
unto  this  day.  And  shall  I  be  inquired  of  by  you,  O 
house  of  Israel  ?  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord  God,  I 
will  not  be  inquired  of  by  you.  And  that  which  cometh 
into  your  mind  shall  not  be  at  all,  that  ye  say,  We  will 
be  as  the  heathen,  as  the  families  of  the  countries,  to  serve 
wood  and  stone.  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord  God,  surely 
with  a  mis^htv  hand,  and  a  stretched  out  arm.  and  with 
fury  poured  out,  will  I  rule  over  you.^^  Before,  then, 
we  charge  the  denunciations  of  the  Mosaic  code 
against  acts  of  idolatry,  as  sanguinary  and  unjustifia- 
ble, or  its  ceremonial  institutions,  for  the  furtherance 
of  the  same  object,  as  vexatious  and  trifling,  let  it  at 
least  be  shown,  that  a  slighter  effort,  on  the  part  of 
the  legislator,  would  have  attained  the  required  object. 
If  this  cannot,  as  assuredly  it  cannot,  be  proved,  then 
the  only  conclusion  to  which  we  can  arrive,  from  the 
whole  bearings  of  the  case,  is,  that  after  all,  the  means 
adopted  were  only  just  adequate  to  the  emergency, 
and  that  what  has  been  set  up  as  an  accusation  against 
the  truth  of  revelation  on  this  occasion  is,  in  reality, 
an  additional  argument  of  the  wisdom  in  which  its 
various  integral  parts  huve  been  arranged. 

8 


86 


CONSISTENCY  OF  REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


87 


i 


M 


CHAPTER  X. 

Of  the  Moral  Tendency  of  the  Levitical  Institutions. 

But  the  defender  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Mosaic 
writings  will  not  be  content  to  rest  his  cause  solely 
upon  e'xculpatory  arguments.      Those   compositions 
profess  to  be  the  dictation  of  almighty  wisdom ;  and 
if  that  assertion  be  correct,  Ave  may  reasonably  expect 
to  find,  in  the  character  of  their  precepts,  some  inter- 
nal proof  and  indication  of  the  pure  source  from  which 
they  emanated.     Now,  on  this  point,  the  course  be- 
fore us  is  an  easy  one.     Christianity,  we  know,  was 
not  introduced  into  the  world  until  after  the  expira- 
tion of  at  least  four  thousand  years  from  the  time 
of  its  creation.      During  that  long  period,  with  the 
single  exception  of  the  patriarchal  families,  previous 
to  iTie  era  of  Moses,  and  of  the  Jewish  nation,  sub- 
sequently to  that  time,  the  human  mind  had  to  form 
its  own  opinions  upon  the  great  questions  of  religion 
and  morals,  from  the  conclusions  of  the  light  of  nature 
only,  unless  we  admit  also  the  not  improbable  sup- 
position, that  some  remnants  of  original  tradition 
contributed  their  aid  towards  the  formation  of  the 
schools  of  ancient  philosophy.     Let,  then,  the  infidel 
give  us,  in  support  of  our  argument,  the  single  book 
of  the  Old  Testament,  or  even  the  writings  of  Moses 
only,  and  let  him  take  the  full  benefit  of  all  the  occa- 
sional sublime  morality,  and  all  the  theology,  which 
he  can  find  in   the  works  of  the  philosophers  and 
moralists  of  heathenism,  from  the  earliest  period  of 
history  down  to  that  of  the  ministry  of  Christ.     No 
doubt  he  will  find  there  much  which  every  Christian 
will  admire  and  approve,  for  we  have  St.  Paul's  owa 
warrant  for  the  assertion,  that  there  was  enough  of 


soundness  in  the  wisdom  of  those  remarkable  men, 
to  render  the  plea  of  ignorance  unavailable  to  those 
who,  notwithstanding  such  helps,  continued  in  the 
commission  of  sin.     Still,  however,  we  may  conh- 
dently  challenge  the  Augustan  age  itself  to  produce, 
if  it  can,  by  selection  from  all  the  works  of  a     the 
ancients,  a  code  of  morals  and  theology,  at  all  ap- 
proaching  in  excellence  to  that  contained  in  the  single 
law  of  Moses,  written,  be  it  remembered,  almost  in 
the  world's  v^ry  infancy,  and  when  Greece  and  Italy 
lav  as  yet,  immersed  in  the  deepest  barbarism.     Had 
we,  in  fact,  nothing  to  produce  but  the   Decalogue 
itself,  we  should  feel  no  anxiety  for  the  issue  ot  the 
challenge.     It  may  be  said,  indeed,  with  reference  to 
this  last  observation,  that  the  doctrine  ot  the  unity  ot 
the  Godhead,  and  the  great  laws  of  social  inorality, 
may  be  found  as  fully  and  explicitly  stated  m  the 
works  of  the  better  heathen  ethical  writers,  as  in 
those  Two  Tables.      But,  admitting  that  the  more 
obvious  injunctions  and  prohibitions  may  be  as  clearly 
expressed  elsewhere,  the  existence  of  the  second  and 
tenth  commandments  would,  we  think,  completely 
bear  out  our  case.     Other  legislators  may  have  as- 
serted  the  unity  of  the  supreme  Being,  and  his  claim 
to   priority  of  worship  :   but  we   very  much  doubt 
whether  any  precept,  excepting  that  of  Moses,  can  be 
quoted,  which  anticipates  the  first  commencing  germ 
of  the  principle  of  idolatry  within  the  heart,  by  point- 
in<r  out  and  guarding  against  the  tendency  to  poly- 
theism, produced  by  the  toleration  of  a  more  limited 
veneration  of  inferior  beings ;  or  which,  after  de- 
nouncing the  various  5vert  acts  of  positive  and  prac 
tical  immorality,  proceeds  to  subject  the  mere  latent 
wish,  the  unripened,  and,  as  yet,  unoperatiye  desire 
to  the  same  uncompromising  censure.      We  learn, 
from  Josephus,  the  strong  effect  produced  upon  the 
Jewish  nation,  even  at  the  latter  period  oi  their  ex- 
istence, by  the  prohibitive  injunction  of  the  second 
commandment  of  the  Decalogue,  in  the  case  ot  the 


68 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


resistance  which  they  made  to  the  innovations  of 
Herod,  upon  the  mere  introduction  by  him  of  trophies, 
bearing  a  very  rude  resemblance  to  the  human  form, 
within  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  we  cannot  but 
contrast  the  beneficial  result  of  this  feeling  of  extreme 
caution  on  so  nice  a  point  in  that  people,  with  the 
gross  abuses  which  have  eventually  attended  seem- 
ingly harmless  deviations  from  the  strictness  of  this 
rule  in  the  instance  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  It  was 
surely  no  human  wisdom  which,  at  so  early  and 
dark  an  era  as  that  of  Moses,  detected  one  of  the  most 
deceitful  principles  of  the  human  breast,  and  antici- 
pated the  coming  mischief  by  a  cautious  and  effectual 
prospective  enactment.  Let  us  take  another  instance 
in  point.  Even  in  the  writings  of  Cicero  we  find  the 
Stoic  Balbus  introduced,  as  maintaining  the  theory 
of  the  divine  nature  of  the  sun,  and  the  other  heavenly 
bodies,  and  of  their  claim  to  our  reverence  as  such. 
Such  was  the  purest  form  of  theology  at  Rome,  at 
a  period  little  antecedent  to  our  Saviour's  nativity. 
Nor  can  any  one  read  the  alleged  conversations  of 
that  truly  remarkable  man  now  alluded  to,  with  his 
contemporary  philosophers,  on  these  sublime  sub- 
jects, without  perceiving  how  much  more  the  great 
questions  of  religion  appear  to  have  been  considered 
by  them  rather  as  matters  of  curious  and  abstract 
discussion,  than  as  any  thing  in  which  they,  as  re- 
sponsible beings,  had  a  vested  and  most  momentous 
interest.  In  opposition  to  such  cold  and  unprofitable 
skirmishing  of  the  intellect,  let  us  quote  the  surpris- 
ingly vivid  and  soul-stirring  appeal  of  the  Jewish 
legislator  on  this  self-same  pofnt.  "  Behold,  I  have 
taught  you  statutes  and  judgments,  even  as  the  Lord 
my  God  commanded  me,  that  ye  should  do  so  in  the 
land  whither  ye  go  to  possess  it.  Keep,  therefore, 
and  do  them,  for  this  is  your  wisdom  and  understand- 
ing in  the  sight  of  the  nation?,  which  shall  hear  all 
these  statutes,  and  say,  Surely  this  great  nation  is 
a  wise  and  understanding  people.      For  what  nation 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON, 


89 


is  there  so  great,  which  hath  God  so  nigh  unto  them, 
as  the  Lord  our  God  is  in  all  things  that  we  call  upon 
him  for^     And  what  nation  is  there  so  great,  and 
hath  statutes  and  judgments  so  righteous,  as  all  this 
law  which  I  set  before  you  this  day  ?      Only  take 
heed  to  thyself,  and  keep  thy   soul  diligently,  lest 
thou  forget  the  things  which  thine  eyes  have  seen, 
and  lest  they  depart  from  thy  heart  all  the  days  of  thy 
life :  but  teach  them  thy  sons  and  thy  son's  s^ons. 
Specially  the  day  that  thou  stoodest  before  the  Lord 
thy  God  in  Horeb,  when  the  Lord   said   unto  me. 
Gather  me  the  people  together,  and  I  will  make  them 
hear  my  words,  that  they  may  learn  to  fear  me  ail 
the  days  that  they  shall  live  upon  the  earth,  and  that 
they  may  teach  their  children.     And  ye  came  near 
and   stood  under  the  mountain,  and   the   rriountam 
burned  with  fire  unto  the  midst  of  heaven,  with  dark- 
ness,   clouds,   and  thick  darkness.      And  the  Lord 
spake  unto  you  out  of  the  midst  of  the  hre.       Ye 
heard  the  voice  of  the  words,  but  saiv  no  similitude  : 
only  ye  heard  a  voice.     And  he   declared  unto  you 
his  covenant,  which  be  commands  you  to  perform, 
even  ten  commandments,  and  he  wrote  them  upon 
two  tables  of  stone.      And  the  Lord  commanded  me 
at  that  time  to  teach  you  statutes  and  judgments, 
that  ye  might  do  them  in  the  land  whether  ye  go  over 
to  possess  it.     Take  ye,  therefore,  good  heed  unto 
your«selves  ;  for  ye  saw  no  manner  of  similitude  on  the 
day  that  the  Lord  spake  unto  me  in  Horeb,  out  of  the 
midst  of  the  fire,  lest  ye  corrupt  yourselves,  and  make 
you  a  graven  image,  the  similitude  of  any  figure,  the 
likeness  of  male  or  female,  the  likeness  of  any  *^«^^/^«^ 
t5  on  the  earth,  the  likeness  of  any  winged  Jowl  t  ha.  tjiteth, 
in  the  air  ;  the  likeness  of  any  thing  that  crcepeth  on  the 
srround,    the  likeness  of  any  fish  that  is  m  the  waters 
beneath  the  earth,  and  lest  thou  lift  up  thim  eyes  unto 
heaven,  and  when  thou  seest  the  sun  and  tJic  moon  and 
the  stars,  even  all  the  host  of  heaven,  shouldest  be  driven 
to  worship  them,  and  serve  them,  which  the  Lord  thy 
^  8* 


90 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


God  hath  divided  unto  all  nations  under  the  whole 
heaven."* 

"  Crudele  gladiatorum  spectaculum  et  inhumanum 
nonnullis  videri  solet,  et  hand  sew  an  ita  sit  ut  nunc 
fit,"  is  again  the  cold-blooded  remark  of  the  above- 
mentioned  accomplished  Roman  philosopher,  on  the 
subject  of  the  atrocious  amusements  of  the  amphi- 
theatre, at  the  period  of  Rome's  highest  state  of  social 
refinement.  Compare  with  this  the  following  noble, 
gublime,  and  beautiful  passages  from  the  Mosaic 
writings:  ** Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man 
shall  his  blood  be  shed."t  "  When  ye  reap  the  har- 
vests of  your  land,  thou  shalt  not  wholly  reap  the 
corners  of  thy  field,  neither  shalt  thou  gather  the 
gleanings  of  thy  harvest ;  and  thou  shalt  not  glean 
thy  vineyard  : — thou  shalt  leave  them  for  the  poor 
and  stranger.  1  am  the  Lord  your  God.  Thou  shalt 
not  defraud  thy  neighbour,  neither  rob  him :  the  wages 
of  him  that  is  hired  shall  not  abide  with  thee  all 
night  until  the  morning.  Thou  shalt  not  curse  the 
deaf,  nor  put  a  stumbling-block  before  the  blind,  but 
shalt  fear  thy  God.  I  am  the  Lord.  Ye  shall  do 
no  unrighteousness  in  judgment ;  thou  shalt  not  re* 
spect  the  person  of  the  poor,  nor  honour  the  person 
of  the  mighty,  but  in  righteousness  shalt  thou  judge 
thy  neighbour.  Thou  shalt  not  avenge,  nor  bear  any 
grudge  against  the  children  of  thy  people,  but  thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself.  I  am  the  Lord."t 
"Thou  shalt  not  see  thy  brother's  ass  or  his  ox  fall 
down  by  the  way,  and  hide  thyself  from  them  ;  thou 
shalt  surely  help  him  to  lift  them  up  again.  If  a 
bird's  nest  chance  to  be  before  thee  in  the  way  in 
any  tree,  or  on  the  ground,  whether  they  be  young 
ones  or  eggs,  and  the  dam  sitting  upon  the  young  or 
upon  the  eggs,  thou  shalt  not  take  the  dam  with  the 
young ;  but  thou  shalt  in  any  wise  let  the  dam  go, 
and  take  the  young  to  thee ;  that  it  may  be  well 


•Deut.  iv. 


M 


tGen.  ix.  6. 


X  Lev.  xix. 


"WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


91 


with  thee,  and  that  thou  mayest  prolong  thy  days."* 
"  No  man  shall  take  the  nether  or  the  upper  millstone 
to  pledge,  for  he  taketh  a  man's  life  to  pledge.  When 
thou  dost  lend  thy  brother  any  thing,  thou  shalt  not 
go  into  his  house  to  fetch  his  pledge.  Thou  shalt 
stand  abroad,  and  the  man  to  whom  thou  dost  lend 
shall  bring  out  the  pledge  abroad  unto  thee.  And  if 
the  man  be  poor,  thou  shalt  not  sleep  with  his  pledge : 
in  any  case,  thou  shalt  deliver  him  the  pledge  again 
when  the  sun  goeth  down,  that  he  may  sleep  in  his 
.own  raiment,  and  bless  thee  :  audit  shall  be  righteous' 
ness  unto  thee  before  the  Lord  thy  God,  Thou  shalt 
not  oppress  an  hired  servant  that  is  poor  and  needy, 
whether  he  be  of  thy  brethren,  or  of  thy  strangers  that 
are  in  thy  land  within  thy  gates.  At  his  day  shalt 
thou  give  him  his  hire,  neither  shall  the  sun  go  down 
«pon  it;  for  he  is  poor,  and  setteth  his  heart  upon  it: 
lest  he  en/  against  thee  unto  the  Lord,  and  it  be  sin  unto 
thee.  Thou  shalt  not  pervert  the  judgment  of  the 
rStranger,  nor  of  the  fatherless,  nor  take  the  widow's 
raiment  to  pledge  ;  but  thou  shalt  remember  that  thou 
avast  a  bondman  in  Egypt,  and  the  Lord  thy  God 
redeemed  thee  thence  :  therefore  I  command  thee  to 
Ao  this  thing.  When  thou  cuttest  down  thine  harvest 
an  thy  field,  and  hast  forgot  a  sheaf  in  the  field,  thou 
shalt  not  go  again  to  fetch  it  /it  shall  be  for  the  stran- 
ger, for  the  fatherless,  and  for  the  widow ;  that  the 
Lord  may  bless  thee  in  all  the  work  of  thine  hands. 
When  thou  beatest  thine  olive-tree,  thou  shalt  not  go 
over  tlie  boughs  again  :  it  shall  be  for  the  stranger, 
for  the  fatherless,  and  for  the  widow.  When  thou 
gatherest  the  grapes  of  thy  vineyard,  thou  shalt  not 
glean  it  afterward  :  it  shall  be  for  the  stranger,  for 
the  fatherless,  and  for  the  widow ;  and  thou  shalt 
remember  that  thou  wast  a  boncUnan  in  the  land  of 
Egypt,  therefore  I  command  thee  to  do  this  thing. "t 
There  is  no  need  of  apology  for  the  length  of  these 


*  Peut.  zxii. 


t  DeuL  xxiv. 


92 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


t 


truly  beautiful  extracts.  We  will  add  one  short  pas- 
sage more,  which  is  remarkable,  when  we  consider 
the  oppressive  Egyptian  bondage  from  which  the 
Israelites  had  recently  escaped,  for  the  truly  Christian 
feeling  of  generosity  and  forbearance  which  it  ex- 
presses. "  Thou  shah  not  abhor  an  Edomite,  for  he 
is  thy  brother ;  thou  shalt  not  abhor  an  Egyptian^ 
because  thou  wast  a  stranger  in  his  land/^* 

It  is  quite  impossible,  we  conceive,  to  read  these 
splendid  touches  of  kindly  feeling  and  sublime  piety 
without  acknowledging  their  immeasurable  superior- 
ity to  any  of  the  most  elaborate  productions  of  Pagan 
civilization.  And  if  so,  the  inquiry,  naturally  fol- 
lows, "  To  what  are  we  to  attribute  this  superiority  ?" 
Grant  the  inspiration  of  the  passages  in  question,  and 
the  difficulty  is  at  once  removed.  But  without  the 
aid  of  this  satisfactory  solution,  the  exquisite  morality 
which  marks  these  most  ancient  of  all  human  composi- 
tions must  be  admitted  to  present  an  anomaly  which 
it  seems  perfectly  impossible  to  account  for  upon  any 
natural  principle. 

We  may  observe,  also,  as  another  striking  internal 
evidence  of  the  authenticity  of  these  singular  records, 
that  the  beauty  of  the  religious  and  social  principles 
which  they  inculcate  is  in  direct  contrast  with  what 
we  find,  from  the  same  sources  of  information,  to  have 
been  the  practical  habits  of  the  parties  to  whom  they 
were  addressed.  Highly  wrought  and  delicate  senti- 
ments of  humanity  and  of  chastened  piety  appear, 
in  the  ordinary  course  of  natural  events,  only  among 
nations  very  far  advanced  in  intellectual  improve- 
ment ;  because  such  productions  grow  out  of  the  exist- 
ing state  of  knowledge  and  manners ;  or  where  the 
literature  of  the  people  outsteps,  by  any  accident,  the 
habitual  state  of  miners  then  prevalent,  some  traits 
of  the  general  barbarism  are,  at  all  events,  distin- 
guishable in  it.      But  what  we  read  in  the  books  of 

•  Deut.  xxiii,  7. 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


93 


Moses  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  attainments  of  the 
Israelites  has  nothing  which  at  all  harmonizes,  or  is 
in  keeping  with  the  sublimity  of  their  religious  code. 
Now  this  singular  contrast  between  the  sacred  litera- 
ture of  that  nation,  and  the  character  of  the  nation 
itself,  is  precisely  what  we  might  expect  to  find,  pro- 
vided their  alleged  history  be  the  true  one.  A  system 
of  laws  emanating  from  Heaven  must  necessarily  be 
supposed  to  be  consistent  with  the  soundest  principles 
of  virtue  and  holiness.  But  it  by  no  means  follows, 
that  the  habits  of  a  semi-barbarous  and  profligate 
people  would  immediately  conform  to  the  restraint  of 
obligations,  so  unlike  to  any  thing  which  constituted 
their  previous  standard  of  morals.  The  accuracy  then 
of  the  picture  afforded  us  by  Moses  on  this  occasion 
is,  according  to  the  established  presumption  of  the 
inspired  character  of  his  writings,  perfectly  correct. 
But  how  are  we  to  explain  the  difficulty,  if  we  deny 
that  inspiration  ?  Assume,  for  argument's  sake,  that 
Moses,  like  some  other  subsequent  legislators,  pos- 
sessed an  understanding  far  in  advance  of  the  pre- 
valent notions  of  his  own  period.  AVhat,  in  that  case, 
could  have  been  his  motive  for  composing  those  his- 
torical works  which  bear  his  name  ?  It  is  evident 
that,  had  his  object  been  merely  to  make  out  a  plau- 
sible case,  and  to  recommend  the  merits  of  his  own 
legislation,  it  would  never  have  occurred  to  him  to 
-state  those  mortifying  facts,  which  form  so  large  a 
part  of  the  subject  matter  of  his  history,  with  that 
plainness  of  narrative  which  we  find  that  he  has 
actually  adopted.  No  original  projector,  and,  more 
than  any  other  person,  no  legislator,  likes  to  record 
the  failure  of  his  own  experiments ;  much  less,  if 
writing  a  narrative  of  his  attempts  to  lenovate  the 
-character  of  the  people  with  whom  he  has  to  deal, 
does  he  love  to  register  his  own  personal  defects,  and 
the  cases  in  which  he  has  drawn  down  the  Divine 
vengeance  upon  his  own  head.  As  it  is,  the  Mosaic 
writings  present  a  true,  unfortunately  too  true,  por- 

G 


94 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


\> 


traiture  of  the  waywardness  of  human  nature,  and  of 
the  impenetrable  surface  presented  by  the  heart  of 
man  to  the  operation  of  the  principle  ot  holiness  ;  but 
they  suggest  any  idea  rather  than  that  of  a  success- 
ful instructer  of  mankind  attempting  to  exemplify  the 
importance  of  his  own  religious  and  moral  precepts, 
by  showing  their  practical  success  in  the  amelioration 
of  the  parties  to  whom  they  have  been  addressed. 

But  a  principle  of  self-denial,  and  an  unwilling- 
ness to  make  the  most  of  the  means,  obviously  placed 
within  his  reach,  for  the  furtherance  of  his  object,  if 
that  object  were  to  promote  his  own  personal  aggran- 
dizement by  the  assumption  of  the  legislative  cha- 
racter, pervades  alike  every  part  of  the  writings  of 
Moses.  Arguing  upon  mere  human  feelings  and 
motives,  this  fact  were  perfectly  inexplicable.  The 
silence,  for  instance,  observed  by  him,  with  regard  to 
the  hopes  and  fears  of  a  future  state,  has  given  rise 
to  one  of  the  most  elaborate  and  ingenious  arguments 
contained  in  the  whole  compass  of  English  literature. 
And  what  makes  his  neglect  of  this  great  influential 
argument  the  more  remarkable,  is  the  certainty  of 
the  fact,  as  appears  incidentally  by  his  own  allusions 
to  the  sin  of  witchcraft  and  necromancy,  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  separate  existence  of  the  soul  was 
familiar  to  the  minds  of  the  people  with  whom  he 
had  to  deal.  Why,  then,  did  he  abstain  from  urging 
a  dogma  of  which  he  could  not  be  ignorant,  and 
which,  as  an  inducement  to  obedience,  is  so  far  the 
most  powerful  one  that  a  legislator  or  moralist  can 
possibly  advance  ?  Had  self-interest  or  human  policy 
been  his  spring  of  action,  it  is  quite  impossible  that 
he  should  have  exercised  this  forbearance.  Admit- 
ting, however,  his  inspiration  to  have  been  real, 
this  remarkable  fact  explains  itself.  This  self-same 
emission,  which  would  present  a  strange  anomaly 
in  any  other  code  of  religion  and  morals,  is,  ii 
Christianity  be  true,  an  absolutely  necessary  conse- 
qiieace  of  the  peculiar  relative  position  which  Ju- 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON* 


% 


daism  held,  as  connected,  prospectively,  with  the 
covenant  of  the  Gospel.  If  eternal  life  be  (as  we  are 
assured  that  it  is)  the  exclusive  result  of  the  ex- 
piatory sacrifice  of  Christ,  communicated  to  mankind 
through  the  medium  of  faith,  it  is  evident  that  no 
incomplete  and  merely  preparatory  system  of  doc- 
trine could  consistently  hold  out  the  promise  of  that 
reward  wh'  h  is  reserved  as  the  especial  sanction  of 
the  higher  and  more  perfect  revelation.  "If,"  says 
St.  Paul,  "  there  had  been  a  law  given  ivhich  could 
have  given  life,  verily,  righteousness  should  have  been 
by  the  law;  but  the  Scripture  hath  concluded  all 
under  sin,  that  the  promise  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ 
might  be  given  to  them  that  believe."  Had,  then, 
Moses  inserted  in  his  own  legal  code  a  promise  of 
eternal  salvation  as  the  reward  of  obedience  to  its 
injunctions,  that  very  promise  would  be  fatal  to  its 
authority  as  an  integral  portion  of  the  entire  ma- 
chinery of  Divine  revelation.  Taking  it,  on  the 
other  hand,  precisely  as  we  find  it,  the  remarkable 
omission  now  alluded  to  is  a  striking  evidence  of 
the  strict  consistency  of  the  various  component  parts 
of  Scripture  one  with  another,  and  consequently  a 
strong  internal  confirmation  of  their  joint  authen- 
ticity. 

Another  very  remarkable  instance  of  the  forbear- 
ance, and  (if  we  were  to  suppose  him  to  have  been 
actuated  only  by  human  motives)  of  what  might  be 
justly  deemed  the  imprudence  and  inconsistency  of 
Moses,  may  be  observed  in  the  fact,  that  though 
legislating  for  an  infant  people,  whose  future  national 
character  was  intended  to  be  moulded  entirely  upon 
the  pattern  of  his  institutions,  and  doing  so  under  the 
alleged  sanction  of  Divine  dictation,  he  still  asserts 
the  mere  provisional  character  of  his  own  institutions, 
and  expressly  declares  that  they  were  to  be  eventually 
superseded  by  the  enactments  of  some  future  and 
more  perfect  legislator.  Here  is  a  contradiction 
which  it  were  quite  impossible  to  reconcile  with  any 


*, 


96 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


admitted  and  ordinary  principles  of  action.     What 
could  possibly  suggest  to  any  reasonable  person,  pro- 
fessing to  be  armed  with  the  Divine  authority,  and 
denouncing  the  most  tremendous  preternatural  visita- 
tions against  any  contingent  breach  of  his  enactments, 
so  strange  an  idea  as  that  of  asserting  that,  after  all, 
the  rules  which  he  thus  peremptorily  lays  down  are 
destined  to  perish,  not  from   the  meu    destructive 
influence  of  time,  but  from  their  own  comparative 
inferiority  to  others  which  are  to  be  subsequently 
introduced  ?     The  anomaly,  upon  every  view  of  the 
question  but  one,  is  quite  inexplicable.     Admitting^ 
however,  the  truth  of  the  whole  series  of  revelation,  as 
contained  in  the  entire  Bible,  not  only  are  we  obliged 
to  admit  the  necessity  of  such  an  explicit  declaration; 
but,  also,  we  cannot  but  be  struck  with  the  nicety  and 
delicacy  of  arrangement  with  which  it  is  introduced. 
It  was  obviously  desirable  at  the  time  of  the  first 
promulgation  of  the  Mosaic  law,  that  no  slur  should 
appear  to  be  thrown  upon  the  sanctity  and  solemnity 
of  an  institution,  which,  however  temporary  in  its 
purpose,  was  still  intended  to  form  the  habits  and  to» 
command  the  respect  of  the  Israelites,  for  the  space 
of  fifteen  centuries,  and,  during  that  long  period,  ta 
serve  as  a  substitute  for  the  more  spiritual  dispensa- 
tion, which  was  eventually  destined  to  occupy  its 
place.     Now,  a  prominent  declaration  of  its  merely 
provisional    character   would   have   been,    in   great 
measure,   destructive   of   this  necessary   degree   of 
deferential  respect ;  and  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
it  been  held  out  as  a  system  complete  and  perfect  in 
itself,  such  an  assertion  would  have  been  inconsistent 
with  the  truth,  whilst,  also,  it  would  have  operated  as 
a   complete   vindication  of  the  later  Jews  in  their 
eventual   reiection  of  the  promises  of  the  Gospel. 
This  difficulty  appears  to  have  been  met  with  that 
exact  degree  of  wise  caution,  which  marks  deliberate 
and  consistent  contrivance.     The  introduction  of  the 
Mosaic  law,  accordingly,  was  accompanied  by  \h9 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON, 


97 


most  astounding  miracles,  and  its  obligatory  charac- 
ter established  under  the  most  terrific  sanctions ;  and 
yet  the  fact  of  its  being  intended  as  a  provisional 
substitute  only  for  a  covenant,  which  was  ultimately 
to  supersede  it,  though  never  brought  prominently 
forward,  is  still  announced  with  a  sufficient  precision 
of  assertion  to  produce  conviction  in  the  mind  of  any 
person,  who,  not  content  with  a  mere  general  survey, 
would  take  the  trouble  of  examining  its  less  palpable 
declarations.  In  this  circumstance  we  recognise  the 
usual  characteristic  of  prophecy :  that  is  to  say,  we 
find  a  statement  not  calculated  to  attract  much  atten- 
tion before  its  completion,  and  yet  which,  when  com- 
pleted, is  found  to  be  sufficiently  precise  to  satisfy  us 
that  its  insertion  was  the  result  of  deliberate  fore- 
knowledge.* 

•  That  the  future  advent  of  Christ  was  foretold  by  Moses,  as  well  as 
by  the  later  prophets,  is  not  an  assumption  derived  from  any  forced  and 
over-ingenious  construction  of  those  parts  of  the  Mosaic  writings  which 
are  thus  interpreted  by  Christians.  The  i^amaritans,  who  acknowledged 
no  canonical  b(x>ks  besides  the  Pentateuch,  looked  forward  to  the  coming 
of  the  promised  Messiah  no  less  confidently  than  the  more  orthodox  Jews. 
The  inferences,  therefore,  which  they  derived  from  these  respective 
passages,  were  the  same  witli-our  own.  "  I  know,"  said  the  woman  of 
Samaria,  in  conversation  with  our  Lord,  "that  Messias  cometh,  which 
is  called  Christ :  when  He  is  come,  he  will  tell  us  all  things."  We  find, 
also,  in  another  passage  of  8t.  John's  g(«pel,  the  Aposile  Philip  bearing 
a  like  testimony  to  the  prophetic  declaration  of  Moses  on  this  point. 
"  Philip  findeth  Nathaniel,  and  saith  unto  him.  We  have  found  him  of 
whom  Moses  in  the  law  and  the  prophets  did  write.''  And,  yet,  not- 
withstanding this  undoubted  explicitness  of  allusion  to  that  important 
event,  so  guarded  is  the  lansruage  of  the  several  passages  which  bear  upon 
the  point,  that  it  may  be  doubted  whether  any  person  unacquainted  with 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  and  |)erusing  the  Mosaic  writings  for 
the  first  time,  would  necessarily  lie  led  by  them  to  cherish  the  same  an- 
ticipation. That  conclusion  would,  upon  a  repeated  perusal,  be  probably 
found  to  be  a  necessary  one,  but  still  it  would  require  a  certain  effort  of 
the  attention,  and  a  balancing  of  consequences,  to  arrive  at  it. 


9 


98 


CONSISTENCY  OF  REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


99 


i« 


u 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Of  the  miraculous  incidents  recorded  by  Moses. 

The  many  miraculous  incidents  which  are  so  inse^ 
parably  interwoven  with  the  whole  series  of  events 
recorded  in  the  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  more  especially  in  the  writings  of  Moses,  as  to 
leave  no  possibility  of  accounting  for  them  from 
natural  causes,  without  destroying  the  whole  history 
itself,  have  ever,  as  a  matter  of  course,  been  a  mark 
for  the  assaults  and  ridicule  of  infidelity.  Nor  is 
this  all.  They  have  also  been  a  subject  of  surprise 
to  many  sincere  believers  in  Christianity,  under  the 
idea  that,  as  the  admitted  system  of  Providence  is 
to  govern  the  world  by  the  operation  of  secondary 
causes,  such  seemingly  gratuitous  instances  of  devia- 
tion from  that  rule  would  appear  at  first  sight  to 
convey  the  idea  of  the  fictitious  and  exaggerated 
traditions  of  a  barbarian  period,  rather  than  of  the 
strictly  accurate  detail  of  real  occurrences.  But  it 
will  be  right,  on  this  occasion,  to  observe,  as  a  pre- 
liminary fact,  that  with  regard  to  the  question  respect- 
ing the  possibility  or  probability  of  miracles,  it  is  not 
within  the  power  of  even  the  strongest  minds,  at  this 
period  of  the  world,  to  discuss  the  matter  fairly.  All 
our  established  associations,  derived  from  our  un- 
broken experience  of  the  uniformity  of  the  existing 
operations  of  nature,  are  directly  in  the  way  of  an 
impartial  conjecture  as  to  what  may,  under  peculiar 
circumstances,  and  in  a  strong  emergency,  be  most 
probable  in  the  dispensations  of  Providence.  It  is 
a  point  completely  established  by  metaphysicians, 
that  by  a  wise  adaptation  of  the  constitution  of  our 
minds  to  the  phenomena  of  the  world  in  which  we 
are  placed,  we  all  of  us  have  an  instinctive  tendency 
to  take  as  our  standard  of  probability,  with  reference 


to  future  events,  our  actual  experience  of  the  past, 
and  to  judge  of  abstract  possibilities  solely  by  the 
occurrences  which  have  fallen  within  our  own  know- 
ledge. This  is  not  the  place  to  dilate  upon  the  process 
of  reasoning,  upon  which  this  axiom  is  founded,  nor 
upon  the  inference  derived  from  it,  which  would  seem 
to  establish,  as  a  no  less  certain  truth,  our  utter  in- 
competence to  trace  any  connexion  between  cause 
and  effect  in  any  natural  incidents  whatever.  Suflfice 
it  to  observe,  that  this  predisposition  in  the  human 
mind  to  scepticism,  with  regard  to  any  deviation 
from  the  usual  course  of  nature,  exists  within  us  in- 
dependently of  our  reason,  and  in  spite  of  our  reason ; 
aad  that  though  it  has  been  given  to  us  as  a  neces- 
sary instinct  for  our  practical  welfare  in  the  business 
of  this  life,  it  is  one  against  which  we  cannot  be  too 
much  on  our  guard  the  moment  that  we  turn  our 
attention  to  the  discussion  of  the  transcendental  topics 
of  theology.  Whilst  under  the  influence  of  such  a 
bias  as  that  now  alluded  to,  it  is  obviously  impossible 
that  the  miracles  recorded  in  the  inspired  writings 
should  be  perused  by  us  without  some  occasional 
misgivings  as  to  the  accuracy  of  the  narrative.  And 
yet,  at  the  same  time,  nothing  can  be  more  certain 
than  that  this  instinctive  scepticism  is  itself  founded 
upon  a  fallacious,  though  to  us  almost  inevitable, 
process  of  reasoning.  When  we  consider  over  how 
very  confined  an  area,  even  of  things  as  they  now 
are,  our  own  personal  knowledge  can  at  the  utmost 
extend,  it  were  obviously  the  extreme  height  of  pre- 
sumption in  us  to  assert,  that  because  particular  oc- 
currences have  not  manifested  themselves  within  our 
own  time,  therefore,  they  not  only  have  never  taken 
place  in  any  other  period  of  the  world,  but  are  actually 
to  be  considered  in  the  light  of  impossibilities.  But 
we  need  not  rest  the  credibility  of  revelation  upon 
this  negative  argument  only.  If  our  present  expe- 
rience tells  us  one  thing  respecting  natural  causes, 
we  may  afliirm  with  certainty,  that  past  experieace,  so 


100 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


101 


y  f-' 


\) 


'I 


far  as  we  can  collect  it  from  history  or  experimental 
research  into  the  phenomena  of  the  globe,  tells  us 
another.  We  evidently  know  nothing  of  the  actions 
and  events  of  past  times  but  from  the  records  of  con- 
temporary writers,  and  those  records  expressly  assert 
that  deviations  from  what  is  now  the  established 
course  of  nature  did  actually  occur  at  the  various 
epochs  to  which  many  of  those  records  refer.  If  we 
are  told  that  such  testimony  is  insufficient,  because 
the  admission  of  it  would  be  to  allow  the  assertions 
of  Scripture  to  prove  themselves,  and  because  the 
events  there  alluded  to  were  demonstrably  impossible, 
our  answer  is,  that  we  have  irrefragable  proofs  in  the 
book  of  creation  itself,  which  the  most  determined 
sceptic  must  admit,  that  circumstances  which  would 
now  be  deemed  impossible  have  actually  occurred  at 
no  very  remote  period  from  our  own  lime.  No  com- 
bination of  materials  with  which  we  are  acquainted, 
excepting  the  natural  order  of  animal  generation, 
would,  at  this  moment,  produce  the  slightest  approach 
to  organized  life.  Not  a  single  feather,  not  a  hair, 
not  a  bone  is  now  seen  to  originate  from  the  spon- 
taneous action  of  the  elements;  and  yet  we  know 
from  positive  research,  that  birds,  quadrupeds,  and 
man,  have  been,  at  their  respective  periods,  called 
into  being  subsequently  to  the  formation  of  the  globe 
which  we  inhabit,  by  some  creative  power,  the  peculiar 
exercise  of  which  seems  to  be  no  longer  exhibited. 
If  we  ask  why  animals  are  no  longer  produced  by 
some  plastic  energy  of  the  vivifying  principle,  our 
only  answer  can  be,  that  for  some  reason  unknown 
to  us,  the  course  of  nature  has  undergone  a  change. 
The  negative  argument  then  afforded  by  our  own 
actual  experience  of  the  existing  order  of  things  is 
confessedly  no  refutation  whatever  of  the  preceding 
supposition,  supported  as  it  is  by  incontrovertible 
facts. 

It  is  an  obvious  truth,  though,  strange  to  say,  con- 
tinually overlooked  in  discussions  of  this  nature,  that 


the  existence  of  a  creation   necessarily  implies  a 
Creator,  and  that  if  its  subsequent  ordinary  duration 
may  be  kept  up  by  seemingly  natural  causes,  the 
energy  to  which  it  owed  its  first  production  must  have 
been,  in  the  usual  meaning  of  the  term,  miraculous, 
that  is  to  say,  a  deviation  from  what  are  now  deemed 
to  be  the  established  laws  of  Providence.    This  obser- 
vation may  be  applied,  with  almost  equal  certainty 
of  inference,  to  the  moral  phenomena  of  human  his- 
tory as  to  the  physical.   Prominent  and  peculiar  effects 
in  the  circumstances  of  this  or  that  nation  must  have 
had  their  peculiar  and  efficient  causes.     That  Chris- 
tianity exists  at  this  moment  is  a  self-decisive  proof 
that  events  must  have  occurred  at  some  definite  period, 
which  gave  that  peculiar  direction  and  impulse  to  the 
human  character.    The  same  argument  extends  with 
equal  force  to  the  point  more  immediately  under  dis- 
cussion at  this  moment,  namelv,  the  early  history  of 
the  Jews.     That  singular  people  exists  at  the  present 
day  as  a  numerous  nation,  scattered  over  almost  every 
region  of  the  earth,  all  of  them  bearing  the  same  tes- 
timony respecting  their  first  origin,  and  still  practising, 
so  far  as  circumstances  will  allow,  the  very  rites  which 
the  Scriptures  declare  to  have  been  ordained  by  Moses 
upwards  of  3000  years  ago.     Now,  as  effects  cannot 
exist  without  their  respective  causes,  "  whence,  we 
ask,  did  this  strange  community  originate,  if  not  from 
the  stock,  and  under  the  peculiar  agency,  to  which  all 
existing  records  whatever  agree  in  referring  them  ?" 
If  the  received  history  is  false,  what  is  the  true  one, 
and  where  is  it  to  be  found  ?    Should  we  be  told  that 
the  books  which  relate  the  miraculous  events,  con- 
nected with  their  first  establishment  as  a  people,  are 
the  productions  of  a  later  period,  calculated,  like  the 
histories  of  other  dark  ages,  to  gratify  national  vanity, 
by  the  relation  of  exaggerated  or  fictitious  wonders : 
the  question  then  occurs,  to  what  period  we  are  to 
assign  these  several  productions,  and  how  we  are  to 
account,  not  only  for  the  disappearance  of  all  the 

9^ 


102 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


r 


really  authenlic  records,  but  for  the  substitution  of 
forged  documents  in  their  room,  which,  notwithstand- 
ing, have  been  implicitly  received  as  authentic  by  the 
parties  thus  imposed  on.    Now,  allowing  the  utmost 
possible  latitude  to  the  conjectures  of  scepticism  on 
this  point,  we  have  the  strongest  reasons  for  asserting 
that  the  Mosaic  writings  were  not  only  in  existence, 
but   were  acknowledged  as   ancient  and   authentic 
documents,  before  the  separation  of  the  ten  tribes 
of  Israel  under  Jeroboam  from  the  two  remaining 
tribes  of  Judah  and  Benjamin.     The  105th,  106th°, 
and  136th  Psalms,  which  are  little  more  than  the 
abridged  details  of  those  narratives,  provided  they 
were  really  the  composition  of  David,  to  whom  uni- 
form tradition  has  attributed  them,  would  at  once 
warrant  this  conclusion.     The  78th  Psalm,  a  work 
also  of  the  same  presumed  date,  affords  a  similar 
evidence.*     But  the  history  of  those  revolted  tribes, 
and  of  their  successors,  the  Samaritans,  supplies  an 
unanswerable  argument  on  this  point.     That  sepa- 
ration, we   know,  took   place   during  the  reign  of 
Rehoboam,  the  son  of  Solomon.     From  that  period 
the  most  deadly  hatred  existed  between   these  two 
separated  branches  of  the  Israelitish  family,  and,  ac- 
cordingly, the  subsequent  prophetical  writings,  which 
were  received  as  inspired  documents  into  the  canon 
of  the  two  orthodox  tribes  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah, 
were  never  acknowledged  as  such  by  their  heretical 
neighbours,  the  schismatics  of  Israel.     Both  parties, 
however,  received  as  authentic  (with  a  few  interpola- 
tions, indeed,  on  the  part  of  the  Samaritans,  in  con- 
sequence  of  their  political  prejudices,)  the  writings  of 
Moses;  a  fact  which  would  be  perfectly  inexplicable 
in  any  other  way  than  that  of  the  supposition  that 
both  equally  believed  them  to  be  such  at  the  time  of 
the  commencement  of  their  schism.    But  this  suppo- 

.^V^!i^^^^^'^'*'"^®^h^P^'"'^^"^6"l''oned  above,  the  41th,  66(h  68(h  74th 

d^±??Ln'  '''^'  ^'^'^'  ^^^'  i^?'V ' ^"^»''  '  '^'h'  '■''''^'  ^"*»  l3^JK;  all  comafn 
difltmct  aUuflioai  to  som«  of  the  facts  related  in  the  Mosaic  history. 


WITH   HUMAN    REASON. 


103 


sition  at  once  carries  the  antiquity  of  those  writings 
far  beyond  the  point  of  time  to  which  most  impugners 
of  their  authority  have  been  desirous  of  referring 
them.*  It  is  remarkable,  that  the  modern  descend- 
ants of  the  ancient  Samaritans  still  occupy  the  town 
of  Nablous,  formerly  Shechem,  situated  between 
Mounts  Ebal  and  Gerizim,  where  they  were  visited, 
in  the  year  1823,  by  the  Rev.  W.  Jowett,  who  gives 
the  following  account  of  his  conversation  with  their 
priest.  "  He  (the  priest)  said  they  were  all  in  expec- 
tation of  the  Messiah— that  the  Messiah  would  be  a 
man,  not  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  this  was  the  place 
which  he  would  make  the  metropolis  of  his  kingdom  : 
this  was  the  place  of  which  the  Lord  had  promised, 
He  would  place  his  name  there.  We  asked  what 
passages  of  the  Pentateuch,  according  to  their  views, 
spoke  of  the  Messiah.  He  quoted,  'A  prophet  shall 
the  Lord  your  God  raise  vp  like  vnto  me,  ^c.'  This 
promise  of  the  Messiah  was  not  fulfilled  in  Joshua, 
for  he  was  not  a  prophet.  Thursday,  Nov.  20th 
1823. — Early  this  morning,  according  to  appointment, 
we  visited  the  Samaritan  priest.  We  waited  for  him 
some  time,  during  which  we  placed  in  order  our 
Bibles,  and  selected  some  texts,  on  which  we  desired 
to  converse  with  him.  At  length  he  made  his  ap- 
pearance, and  accompanied  us  into  the  synagogue. 
With  great  reverence,  he  produced  the  venerable 
manuscript  (the  MS.  of  the  law  alluded  to  in  Pri- 
deaux's  Connection,  Part  I.  Book  2.,)  which,  he  said, 
was  written  by  Abisha,  grandson  of  Aaron,  thirteen 
years  after  the  death  of  Moses,  now  three  thousand 
four  hundred  and  sixty  years  ago.  We  were  not  per- 
mitted to  touch  the  sacred  book,  but  only  to  look  at 
it,  at  about  a  foot  distance.  The  page  at  which  he 
opened  showed  certainly  a  very  ancient  manuscript, 

•  The  theory,  that  the  books  which  bear  the  name  of  Moses  were,  in 
reality,  a  compilation  made  by  Ezra  after  tlie  Babylonish  captivity,  is 
perfectly  irreconcilable  with  the  fact  of  the  admission  of  the  authenticity 
of  those  books  by  the  revolted  inhabitants  of  Samai'ia. 


104 


CONSISTENCY   OF    REVELATION 


with  the  characters  yet  sufficiently  distinct.  He  then 
showed  us  another,  of  a  similar  form,  apparently  an 
exact  copy,  which,  he  said,  Avas  eight  hundred  years 
old.  He  also  produced  a  few  tattered  leaves  of  Wal- 
ton's Polyglott— -part  of  Genesis.  We  asked  if  they 
did  not  consider  the  books  o^  Joshua  and  Judges  as 
sacred,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Torah  ;  he  replied, 
*  By  no  means :  these  two  books  we  have,  and  we 
reverence  them;  but  the  Torah  is  our  only  sacred 
book.  Joshua  was  not  a  prophet,  but  the  disciple  of 
a  prophet;  that  is,  of  Moses.'  We  inquired  in  which 
direction  they  turn  their  faces  when  they  pray.  He 
waved  his  hand  in  the  direction  a  little  right  of  the 
angle  behind  the  altar,  that  is,  nearly  southward.  In 
this  direction  is  the  city  of  Luz,  which  was  afterwards 
called  Bethel,  the  place  which  the  Lord  appointed  to 
set  his  name  there.  As  to  Jerusalem,  they  have  no 
respect  for  it  as  a  holy  city ;  regarding  the  Jews  as 
their  rivals,  and  speaking  entirely  in  the  spirit  of  the 
woman  of  Samaria,*  Our  fathers  worshipped  in  this 
mountain,  4"^."t 

It  is  superfluous  to  observe  how  exactly  this  state- 
ment accords  with  the  facts  detailed  in  Scripture, 
and  how  strongly  it  confirms  the  alleged  antiquity 
of  the  Mosaic  books.  It  has  been  frequently,  and 
justly,  remarked,  that  the  circumstance  of  the  Jews 
being  joint  depositaries  with  the  Christians  of  the 
Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  in  general,  is  an 
unanswerable  evidence  that  those  writings  have  not 
been  tampered  with  and  altered  by  the  latter.  The 
argument  afforded  in  confirmation  of  the  authenticity 
of  the  Pentateuch,  in  particular,  by  this  testimony  of 
a  sect  disposed  to  controvert  that  of  every  other  por- 
tion of  the  sacred  canon,  is  precisely  similar  in  kind, 
and,  as  it  appears  to  us,  not  less  conclusive,  with 
regard  to  the  writings  to  which  it  refers.     The  pe- 

•  John  iv.  20. 

t  Jowett's  Christian  Researches  in  Syria  and  Uje  Holy  Land,  pp.  196, 
iBtseq. 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON.  ^q^ 

culiar  creed  of  this  li«t  i;,,-,    • 
schismatic  tribes    whhif"'"^.r™?""*  "f  "'^  ««» 
events  of  their  historyif  that      r'  T""^'  "^  ^^e 
transmitted  to  us  in  the  Old  tL,       ''^  ^-^  correctly 
impossible  to  account  for  on  tLn  """"*•  "  '^""'^  be 
of  that  narrative  being  ^dse    Admir"V"PP°^"''°° 
accuracy,  the  antiquity  of  , he  tl""'  ^°'^^^^''  "« 
once  established,  up  to  a  nerfn^  ,^-T  ^^"^'^ffs  is  at 
room  for  the  pSilt/ly^^  Z^lt'^''^^  ^'^'''^ 
nothing  more  than  a  successful  fnrl      '^r^'""  ^'^"^ 
earlier  epoch.     The  endeavom-  ,7^"/  °^  '"'"^  «'•« 
of   the   difficulty   atte"din  J  ?l  •    ''T'?''*?'  '"  ?«  "d 
miraculous  events  of  fh!  i"    •  ,    ^'^mission    of   the 

<3enying  their  aXn£?tvwfnK'''r'"yi '''^  ^^  °»'=« 
as  in  the  case  of  all  the  ot'hpl  ^'  ^°""''  "P""  ^"al, 
of  revelation,  to  introduce  far  „  '"^i^'^-''^^^  questions 
It  is  calculat-d  to  reX^^'^'f  "^'^''P^'-pJexity  than 
events,  imagine  LuZII  I  ^^  '^^'^  ^''^'  or  at  all 
of  the  deali^ls  'of  a  wTr  'T"""  ^^y' '"  '^e  course 
-eh   Pretern4ra?inT    er^ncersS  '1""'^^^' 

the  result  of  a  sysfem  of"f^"''r  '"^'"^  ^^"""^  be 
other  words,  of  a'^  feory  wS'l' nP'f'^'"'  '"•'  "^ 
us  to  believe  anvflWmrf         i    """'''  almost  oblio-g 

of  flattering  us  '^v^^rn;ide"aof"r>-P"!"P°^^  '^^  '»>"-' 
It  cannot  be  too  stronll,,^         believing  nothing. 

that,  granting  tKiScVof'^r'''''  "?°"  °"'  '"i^ds 
Mosaic  writitigs  without  inl?"  -^T"'"^''  ''f  'he 
inspiration,  ev?^' thai  aT;?"""^  "^^'^  "Poa  «i'eir 
necessary  con::que„ce  t"e?ealitro7  a  j'""'^^'  ''  « 
■on  of  the  miracles  there  recorded  M  ^'^^  "^IT" 
like  some  modern  fannill   ?       ,     ^"^^^ <=»"W not, 

sion  with  regard  to  the  rpl-I-f'^'r^'""  ""''^'"  "^  -^e'"- 
the  prodi<.ies  relatll  ;    ^^^'-^  °{  ^'^  '"'ssion.  or  of 

those  books!  he  was  ei?hr?".^.^'"-     ^<^ ''«  ^'"^'^ 
a  person  really  bearTn'te.      ''*"''''?^«.«e  impostor,  or 
upon  specia    occlsioi       '.^"'"""'ssion,  and  endued, 
But  we  are  not  frpp/^'   7        Perternatural  power 
not  tree  to  choose  between  even  these 


106 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


4 


alternatives.     He  could  not  have  been  an  impostor  if 
he  would.      The  very  nature  of  the  miracles  related 
of  him,  and  by  him,  were  such  as  to  render  all  imposi- 
tion impossible.     The  whole  body  of  the  Israelites 
are   asserted  by  him  to  have  personally  witnessed 
deviations  from  the  ordinary  course  of  nature,  ori  a 
scale  far  too  great  to  have  been  by  any  supposition 
within  the  limits  of  unassisted  agency  to  effect ;  and 
an  appeal  is  repeatedly  made  to  their  testimony  for 
the   accuracy   of  the   respective   statements.      The 
infliction  of  the  plagues  upon  the  Egyptians,  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Red  Sea,  the  miraculous  production  of 
water  in  the  Desert,  the  thunders  and  lightnings  of 
Mount  Sinai  during  the  delivery  of  the  law,  the  gift 
of  manna,  and   the   dreadful  judgment  overtaking 
Dathan  and  his  accomplices,  are  all  related,  not  as 
events  of  remote  occurrence,  and  such  as  might  be 
safely  invented,  when  the  production  of  all  contra- 
dictory testimony  should  have  been  rendered  impos- 
sible by  the  lapse  of  time ;  but  as  facts,  for  which  the 
great  mass  of  the  nation  could  vouch,  as  having  been 
themselves  eye-witnesses  of  their  reality.     In  such  a 
case,  there  is  no  tenable  middle  position  between 
absolute  denial  of  the  truth  of  the  whole  narrative, 
and  its  absolute  admission  in  all   its  parts.     Any 
attempt,  therefore,  at  accommodation  of  the  circuni-* 
stances  related,  with  the  more  tranquil  course  of  ordi- 
nary nature,  is  as  unphilosophiiial  as  it  is  unsafe. 
True,  indeed,  it  is,  that  the  prodigies  related  are  of 
the   most  astounding  description.       No    consistent 
advocate  of  revelation  would  seek  to  gloss  over  this 
fact.     But  after  all,  what  does  this  prove,  excepting 
what  every  believer  in  Christianity  is,  upon  principle, 
bound  to  admit?  namely,  that  the  production  of  that 
mysterious  system  of  redemption  has  been,  of  all  the 
works  of  Providence  with  which  we  are  acquainted, 
the  most  important  in  its  nature,  and,  therefore,  if  we 
may  venture  so  to  speak  of  Almighty  agency,  the 
most    elaborate  in  its  contrivance  and  appomted 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


107 


h  machinery.     If  our  reason  can  see  no  possible  means 

^^  of  escaping  from  the  recognition  of  the  truth  ZTe 

nspired  records,  that  same  reason,  then,  must  ^ell  us 
that  a  dispensation  so  solemnly  prepared    and  so 
consistently,  so  slowly,  and  so  cautiously  develop^^^^ 
year  after  year,  and  century  aAer  century,  musfbe 
one,  the  paramount  value  of  which  will  be  found  to 
justify  the  vast  expenditure  of  means  employed  in  its 
production.     In  this  view  of  the  case,  everv  miracle 
recorded  in  the  Old  Testament  is  onlV  an  e^denee 
the  more  to  the  sanctity  of  the  covenant  of  the  Gos! 
pel;  and  if  so,  let  every  well-wisher  to  that  covenant 
te  careful  how,  in  the  vain  hope  of  conciliating  those 
who  are  not  to  be  conciliated,  he  adopts  a  cou^e  of 
argument,  the  direct  and  obvious  tendency  of  which 
indeed,  is  to  attach  suspicion  to  only  one  portion  of 
the  sacred  writings,  but  which,  if  established,  would 
necessarily  lower  our  estimate  of  them  as  a  whole. 

"incider^t  ""^^'^^'''  »^«s'  dignus  vindice  nodus 

!Lf /f"^^  ''V'''  ""^'^  momentous  application  than 
thatof  mere  hterary  criticism.     None  but  the  wildest 
fanatic  will  be  disposed  to  believe  hastily  in  everv 
alleged  deviation  from  the  established  laws  of  nature  • 
but  that  man,  on  the  other  hand,  must  have  imbibed 
little   of  sound  philosophy  who,  looking  round  upon 
all  the  mysteries  by  which  we  are  environed,  would 
pronounce   such   deviations   to  be   impossible  •    or 
taking  mto  consideration  the  concurrent  testimonv  of 
ITol^Z"'  %»^^'  ""ll^^^efitting  circumstances,  im- 
probable.     Surely  the  legitimate  and  most  probable 
conclusion,  in  the  ^.ce  of  such  evidence  as  Lt  ad! 
duced  in  support  of  the  scriptural  miracles,  is  not, 
that  the   facts   are  themselves  untrue,  but  that  the 
motives  lor  their  occurrence  were  urgent  in  exact 
proportion  to  what  may  be  presumed  of  the  <^eneral 
unwillingness  of  the  Creator  to  disturb  those  laws 
which  m  his  wisdom,  he  has  thought  fit  to  impose 
upon  his  creation.  * 


108 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


109 


CHAPTER  XIL 

Of  the  internal  Evidence  of  the  Authenticity  of  the  Books  of  Moses, 
and  of  the  other  Jeicish  Scriptures. 

Bishop  Watson  has  recorded  an  observation,  made 
by  Sir  Isaac  Newton  to  Dr.  Smith,  Master  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  "that  he  found  more  sure  marks 
of  authenticity  in  the  Bible  than  in  any  profane  history 
whatever.'^  To  those  who  have  been  in  the  habit  of 
considering  the  books  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  a 
mere  tissue  of  astounding  incidents,  substantiated 
only  by  a  moderate  weight  of  external  evidence,  this 
assertion  will  appear  in  the  highest  degree  para- 
doxical. And  yet  it  is  one  which  every  person  will 
feel  the  more  disposed  to  admit,  the  more  he  ex- 
amines and  estimates  the  detail  of  those  writings  by 
that  intuitive  apprehension,  by  which  we  all  judge 
instinctively  of  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  any  series  of 
facts  which  we  hear  related.  Every  one  knows  how 
difficult  it  is  to  maintain  such  an  entire  consistency 
through  all  the  minor  points  of  a  fictitious  narrative, 
that  no  subsequent  criticism  should  be  able  to  detect 
any.  incompatibility  of  fact,  or  confusion  and  contra- 
diction in  the  delineation  of  character.  Thisdifficulty, 
which  increases  in  a  compound  proportion,  according 
to  the  length  of  the  work  in  the  hands  of  a  single 
author,  may  and  will  amount  to  an  actual  impos- 
sibility in  the  case  of  a  variety  of  authors,  eiich  sepa- 
rately contributing  his  tshare  toward  the  construction 
of  one  entire  and  consistent  narrative,  especially 
where  the  facts  to  be  related  lie  out  of  the  ordinary- 
course  of  events.  Where,  then,  as  in  the  instance  of 
the  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  we  find  a 
long  succession  of  writers,  living  some  of  them  at 
remote  int'^rvals  from  one  another,  each  having  their 


i 


J 


separate  and  distinct  objects  in  the  composition  of 
their  respective  works,  and  yet  producing,  without 
any  seeming  intentional  combination,  a  "series   of 
compositions,  which,  when  joined  together,  form  one 
continuous  and  consistent  whole;  in  which  no  viola- 
tion of  unity,  in  the  delineation  of  natural  manners 
or  of  mdividual  character,  no  contradictions  of  chro- 
nology, no  anomaly  of  cause  and  effect,  from  first  to 
last,  can  be  delected  ;  where  the  latter  works  neces- 
sarily presuppose  the  existence  of  the  earlier,  and  the 
earlier  would  be  incomplete  unless  succeeded  by  the 
latter;  whilst  all  alike  anticipate  the  developement 
of  some  future  system,  which  has  followed  in  the  due 
course  of  events,  as  the  final  completion  of  the  whole; 
and  where  statements,  which  at  first  sight  appear  in 
the  light  of  contradictions,  are  discovered,  upon  a 
second  examination,  to  be  real  congruilies;  in  such 
a  case,  be  the  subject  matter  as  marvellous  as  it  may, 
we  have  as  strong  internal  evidence  of  the  authen- 
ticity and  accuracy  of  those  writings,  as  the  nature 
of  things  can  possibly  supply.      It  is  not  saying  too 
miich  to  assert,  that  all  these  combinations  of  evid'ence 
unite  in  vouching  for  the  truth  of  the  portions  of 
Scripture  now  alluded  to.     Admitting,  as  we  neces- 
sarily must  do,  that  the  history  of  the  Jews,  as  con- 
tained in  the  sacred  writings,  describes  a  certain  part 
of  the  human  race  as  placed  under  very  remarkable 
and  in  a  certain  sense  of  the  term  improbable,  cir- 
cumstances ;  still,  that  point  once  conceded  by  us,  all 
that  follows  in  the  filling  up,  as  it  may  be  called',  of 
the  main  design,  is  effected  with  a  singular  air  of 
truth  and  reality,  which  it  w^ould  be  absolutely  impos- 
sible to  account  for  on  the  supposition  of  the  main 
narrative  being  fictitious.    It  is  evident,  as  has  already 
been  observed,  that  it  is  no  solution  of  the  difficulty 
to  suppose  that  the  ground  work  of  fact  is  correct, 
but  that  the  miraculous  incidents  are  a  superaddition 
produced  by  fraud,  superstition,  or  national  vanity  ; 
because  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  the  prodigies 


no 


CONSISTENCY    OF   REVELATION 


related  are  such  as  must  be  entirely  true  or  entirely 
false.      We  cannot  account  for  them  by  supposing 
them  to  have  been  natural  incidents,  elevated  into 
preternatural  subjects  of  wonder  by  the  exaggerations 
of  ignorance.      The  whole  recorded  series  of  events 
requires,  for  the  sake  of  their  own  consistency,  that 
the  miracles  should  have  been  really  such.      Other- 
wise the  history  itself  becomes  a  tissue  of  inconsequen- 
tial improbabilities.      Unless,  then,  it  can  be  shown 
to  be  too  incredible  for  the  satisfaction  of  a  rational 
mind,  to  suppose  that,  all  the  strange  circumstances 
and  anomalies  of  our  nature  considered.  Providence 
should  ever  condescend  to  aiford  a  revelation  of  its 
will  to  serve  us  as  a  guide  through  this  life,  and  to 
direct  our  hopes  towards  one  in  reserve  ;— unless  it 
can  be  shown  that,  even  admitting  the  probability  of 
the  communication  o^  some  revelation,  that  revelation 
IS  not  Christianity  ;— and   again,  unless,   supposino" 
Chrislianity  to  be  true,  we  still  think  it  impossible 
that  an    intermediate  and  provisional  arrangement 
should  be  vouchsafed  to  some  one  select  portion  of 
mankind,  for  the  express  purpose  of  keeping  alive  the 
remnant  of  true  Theism  from  the  abominations  of 
idolatry;— unless,  we  repeat,  all  these  assumptions 
are  manifestly  such  as  no  well-informed  mind  could 
possibly  admit,  under  any  degree  whatever  of  positive 
evidence  ;  it  seems  to  follow  thai,  in  a  choice  of  con- 
flicting difficulties,   those  attending  a  belief  in  the 
Divine  inspiration  and  consequent  truth  of  the  his- 
torical parts  of  the  Old  Testament  are  far  less  than 
those  which  necessarily  accompany  their  rejection. 

Once,  however,  proceed  thus  far,  and  the  course 
of  the  believer  lies  smooth  during  the  remainder  of 
his  progress.  The  intervention  of  the  Deity  once 
admitted  as  probable,  the  inference  is  obvious,  that 
the  same  superintending  care  \vould  continue  to  in- 
terpose till  the  final  accomplishment  of  its  object 
should  be  achieved  :  and  thus  the  miracles  of  the  New 
Testament  would,  by   a  direct  implication,   alTord 


WITH    HUMAN   REASON. 


Ill 


I 


confirmatory  testimony  to  those  of  the  Old,  and  the 
miracles  of  the  Old  Testament  to  those  of  the  New. 
On  the  other  side,  the  cause  of  infidelity  is  encum^ 
bered  with  accumulating  difficulties  at  every  step. 
Get  rid  of  the  preternatural  occurrences  recorded  by 
Moses,  as  the  mistakes  of  a  barbarous  and  supersti- 
tious age,  still  we  are  met  by  those  connected  with 
the  later  portions  of  the  Jewish  history.    Deny  those, 
and,  in  addition  to  the  improbability  that  an  ancient 
and  remarkable  people  should  ever  have  existed,  the 
whole  of  whose  presumed  historical  records  should 
essentially  prove  to  have  been  a  fiction  ;  we  have 
again  all  the  miraculous  occurrences  connected  with 
the  first  establishment  and  subsequent  propagation 
of  Christianity,  to  account  for  by  the  same  theory 
of  ignorance  or  forgery.     And,  after  all,  if  we  ask 
ourselves,  what  is  the  great  point  to  be  gained,  by 
thus  questioning  the  records  of  past  ages,   step  by 
step,  and  by  attempting,  at  this  late  period,  to  prove 
to  be  false,  what  the  assertions  of  professed  eye-wit- 
nesses declare  to  have  been  true;  the  end  and  object 
of  this  obstinacy  of  scepticism  is  nothing  less  than 
the  dissolution  of  all  the  highest  sanctions  of  morality, 
and  the  extinction  of  the  hopes  of  a  future  life.   Surely 
so  unworthy  a  conclusion,  in  want  of  other  evidence, 
would  itself  argue  an  unsoundness  in  the  premises 
upon  which  it  is  founded. 

The  argument,  then,  in  favour  of  the  authenticity 
of  the  Jewish  sacred  history,  derived  from  the  inter- 
nal air  of  probability  which  pervades  the  whole,  is 
one  to  which  it  is  impossible  to  do  justice,  otherwise 
than  by  referring  each  respective  reader  to  the  original 
work,  and  recommending  him  to  judge  for  himself 
by  the  standard  of  his  own  intuitive  common  sense. 
It  may  not,  however,  be  amiss  to  point  out  some  few 
instances,  selected  at  random,  in  illustration  of  this 
view  of  the  subject. 

The  theoretical  perfection  of  the  Jewish  moral 
code,  and  the  singular  contrast  which  it  presents  with 


1 


112 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


the  rebellious  and  wayward  disposition  of  the  people 
for  whose  use  it  was  promulgated,  has  already  been 
alluded  to.  It  has  also  been  observed,  on  the  same 
occasion,  that  this  opposition  between  the  illumina- 
tion of  the  legislator  and  the  darkness  of  the  governed 
is  precisely  that  which  we  might  expect  to  find  in  the 
case  of  the  communication  of  a  Divine  law  to  a  bar- 
barous people.  But  upon  the  supposition  that  the 
writings  attributed  to  Moses  are  the  exaggerated 
statements  of  that  remarkable  person  himself,  or  the 
forgeries  of  a  subsequent  period,  the  fact  now  referred 
to  would  be  completely  inexplicable.  Upon  the  former 
hypothesis,  we  must  suppose  that  Moses,  in  order  to 
give  an  imposing  air  to  the  law,  of  which  he  was  the 
promulgator,  was  the  inventor  of  that  tissue  of  as- 
serted miracles,  which  his  writings  declare  to  have 
accompanied  the  Israelites  in  their  progress  from 
Egyptian  captivity  to  the  promised  land  of  Canaan. 
But  it  is  obviously  inconceivable  that  the  same  person 
who,  by  a  wilful  false  statement,  would  attempt  to 
give  to  a  law  of  his  own  invention  the  sanction  of 
Divine  authority,  by  an  audacious  assertion  of  mira- 
cles which  had  never  really  taken  place,  should  at  the 
same  time  act  so  inconsequentially  as  to  represent 
that  same  law  in  that  same  narrative  as  failing  of 
its  proposed  salutary  effect,  through  the  folly^'and 
obstinacy  of  those  for  whose  improvement  it  was 
intended.  No  impostor  wilfully  invents  a  falsehood 
for  the  sake  of  proving  the  failure  of  his  own  favour- 
ite theories  ;  yet  if  the  miracles  recorded  in  the  books 
of  Moses  were  false,  and  still  those  writings  were 
really  his,  with  this  gratuitous  follv  he  was  undoubt- 
edly chargeable.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  suppose 
what  are  called  the  Mosaic  books  to  be  the  production 
of  a  later  period,  the  difhculty  now  stated  is  rather 
increased  than  diminished.  In  the  first  place,  it  must 
be  pronounced  to  be  next  to  an  impossibility  to  palm 
upon  a  whole  nation,  however  barbarous,  a  written 
code  of  precise  and  often  vexatious  enactments,  com- 


WITH   HUMAN  REASON. 


113 


bmed  with  the  most  exquisite  moral  beauty,  as  a  real 
work  of  antiquity,  which,  supposing  the  sto  y  relafed 
of  1  to  be  true,  would  necessarily  have  been  in  prac- 
Ileal  operation  before  such  a  forgery  could  be  nro 

in  the  forger  precisely  the  same  act  of  folly  which  it 
seems  impossible  to  attribute,  with  the  slightest  pro 
babihty,  to  any  acknowledged  human  mStives/  If 
those  books  were  the  coinage  of  a  later  aee  and 
intended  to  give  celebrity  to  The  name  of  Ss  on 
the  same  prmciple  which  has  led  many  supersti  ous 
people  to  invent  false  legends  for  the  sake  of  confer! 

wh?  A'T""'''  I'P^''  "^^^^'^^^  ^^'^^"^^  ^"d  legislators; 
why  did  not  the  inventor  make  his  panegyHc  more 
valuable,  by  statmg  the  success  of  the  laws  in  Zs- 
lion,  in  ameliorating  the  morals  of  the  Israelites,  to 
have  been  in  all  respects  complete?  How  could  the 
fhZ^  conceive    the   idea   of  the   tremendous 

thunders  and  lightnings  and  earthquakes  of  Mount 
binai,  and  of  the  petulant  murmurings  and  rebellions 
ol  the  Jews  agamstalaw  thus  awfully  enforced  ?  If 
It  be  urged  that  such  anomalous  conduct  accords  ex- 
actly with  what  we  know  of  the  strange  contradictions 
01  human  nature,  we  readily  agree  in  the  truth  of  that 
observation;  but  we  reply,  that,  though  perfectly  in 
keeping  with  reference  to  the  practical  follies  of  the 
human  breast    such  a  delineation   is  by  no  means 
consistent  with  what  an  interested  person  would  be 
disposed  to  invent,  whilst  attempting  to  impose  a  false 
and  plausible   statement  upon  others.     A  fabulous 
writer  represents  his  Orpheus,  or  whoever  may  be 
the  fictitious  hero  of  his  narrative,  reducing  men  and 
brutes  from  the  savage  to  a  civilized  state  by  the 
mere  charm  of  his  eloquence  :  he,  on  the  contrary, 
^ose  lot  it  is  to  relate  the  real  history  of  the  practical 
ettects  of  the  most  truly  Divine  philosophy  upon  the 
stubborn  materials  of  our  fallen  nature,  will  have  a 
lar  less  pleasing,  and  as  it  mav  at  first  sight  appear 
a  lar  Jess  plausible  story  to  record. 

10^ 


H 


i 

v! 


114 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


115 


:! 


It  may  be  safely  asserted  that  none  of  us  know,  or 
possibly  could  anticipate  from  conjecture,  the  entire 
degree  of  desperate  resistance  presented  by  the  evil 

Erinciple  to  the  good,  in  the  history  of  the  human 
eart.  We  cannot  conceive  that  the  miracles,  re- 
corded to  have  taken  place  in  the  wilderness,  were 
compatible  with  the  systematic  spirit  of  disobedience 
related  of  the  followers  of  Moses.  True  ;  we  cannot 
conceive  it,  a  priori,  and,  therefore,  it  is  to  the  highest 
degree  improbable  that  such  a  narrative  should  be 
forged  for  the  purpose  of  imposing  upon  mankind. 
But  neither  can  we  conceive  that  the  most  awful 
visitations  of  Providence  should  oftener  have  a  tend- 
ency to  harden  than  to  soften  the  feelings  of  irreligious 
and  profligate  persons.  We  should  never  dure  to  an- 
ticipate as  a  theory,  what,  unfortunately,  we  know  to 
be  experimentally  true,  that  the  hardihood  of  human 
wickedness  is  seldom  more  dreadfully  displayed  than 
in  the  sinking  of  a  crowded  ship,  at  the  execution  of 
a  criminal,  or  during  the  ravages  of  pestilence  in  a 
thickly  peopled   city.*    There  is  a  desperation  of 

*  The  tendency  of  temporal  affliction  in  a  mind  thoroughly  imbued 
with  the  principles  of  Christianity  is  undoubtedly  to  invigorate  the  feel- 
ing of  devotion,  and  to  make  the  sufferer  cling  with  more  eager  reliance 
to  the  protection  of  Heaven.  But  examples  of  this  description  constitute 
the  exception,  not  the  rule,  when  applied  to  human  nature  in  general 
The  following  is  the  description  afforded  by  an  eye-witness  of  the  effect 
produced  upon  the  minds  of  the  population  of  London  by  the  plague,  in 
the  year  1665.  It  unhappily  accords  too  exactly  with  what  we  read  of 
other  large  communities  which  have  been  visited  with  the  like  scourge : — 

"The  people  themselves  did  not  see  the  hand  of  0(xi,  nor  seek  righte- 
ousness, when  God's  hand  wasso  dreadfully  lifted  up  against  us.  In  one 
house  you  might  hear  them  roarina:  under  the  pangs  of  death  ;  in  the  next 

tippling, and  belching  out  blas[)hennes  against  God;  one  house 

ehut  up  with  a  red  cross  and  Lord  have  mercy  upon  us !  the  next 
open  to  all  uncleanness  and  impiety,  being  senseless  of  the  anger  of  God. 
In  the  very  pest-houses  such  wickednesses  connnitted  as  are  not  to  be 

named The  hottest  iudgmeni.^^  did  not  teach  many  of  us  either 

to  pray  or  repent." — Life  of  General  Monck,  by  T.  Gunihfe,  D.D. 

Bourienne,  in  hi3  memoirs  of  Napoleon,  gives  a  no  less  striking  delinea- 
tion of  that  atrocity  of  feeling  which  almost  invariably  accompanies  the 
extremity  of  human  misery,  where  the  counteraction  of  religion  is  want- 
ing. The  narrative  refers  to  the  disastrous  retreat  of  the  French  army 
from  Syria  after  their  discomfiture  before  the  walls  of  Acre. 

'*  A  most  intolerable  thirst,  the  total  want  of  water,  andexcessiye  heat. 


J 


n 


I'. 

i 


principle  m  the  thoroughly  vicious,  which  hardens 
itseit  in  exact  proportion  to  the  appeal  which  would 
soothe  Its  obduracy  into  gentleness;  and  thoucrh  the 
average  moral  character  of  mankind  may  not  d'^eserve 
the  full  severity  of  this  description,  still  we  know 
that  the  waywardness  of  human  nature  at  the  mo- 
ment  of  trial  is  far  beyond  what  we  conceive  of  our 
leelings  in  their  common  and  quiescent  state.  The 
mcreduhty  of  the  later  Jews,  who  had  been  eve- 
witnesses  of  our  Saviour's  miracles,  has  often  been 
mentioned  with  surprise,  and  by  the  impugners  of 
reye  ation  has  been  referred  to  as  an  obvious  impro- 
babUity  \  et  this  very  character  was  given  of  them 
by  our  Redeemer  himself.     "  If  they  hear  not  Moses 

and  a  fatiguing  march  over  burning  sandhills,  quite  disheartened  the  men 
a..d  niade  every  generous  sentiment  give  way  to  feelint^f  the  grS 
selfishness,  and  rm^t  shocking  indifference.  I  saw  officers  with Xir 
Unbs  amputated  thrown  off  the  litters,  whose  remov^i^  Sarwav  had 
been  ordered,  and  who  had  themselves  given  money  to  recomDTr^  th^ 
bearers.  I  saw  the  amputated,  the  wounded,  the  infected  orTo^oLlv 
8us,)ected  of  mfection   (Tesened  and  left  to  themselves     Thrma?chwa^ 

Hummed  by  torches,  lighted  for  the  purpose  of  settin-  fire  to  the  iS 
wrth'"^T^'  'T'^^h^^'l^i^  >v»»ich  lay  iraheir  route  a^ndThe  rich  cron^ 
W  ze  Th  J^  ^r^  """"  '^r  T'"'^-  The  whoi;  country  was  [n"^ 
ch!!'  J^"^^  "yh^  were  ordered  to  preside  at  this  work  of  destruction 
seemed  eager  to  spread  desolation  on  every  side,  as  if  S  cS 

fuVhUZ'"^'  //'em.e/r..>r  their  reverses  and  findin  sue  { dread. 
Jul  havoc  an  alleviation  oj  their  sufferings.  We  were  constanilv 
surrounded  by  plunderers,  inc<.nd,aries,  fnd  thf  dying,  wLstrTtched  on 
the  sides  01  the  road,  implored  assistance  in  a  feeble  voi^e  4vinl  '  I  am 
not  mlected,  I  am  only  wounded;'  and  to  convince  th^rWlfomfheyad^ 
dressed  they  re-opened  their  old  wounds,  or  inflicted  oTthem^lies^r^h 
ones.  St.ll  nobcKly  attended  to  them.  '  It  is  all  over  with  h^m  '  wal  Se 
obeervation  applied  to  the  unfortunate  beings  in  successionTl'.iirfverv 
one  pressed  onward.  The  sun  which  shone  in  an  unclouded  sku  in  all 
fl^irightness  was  of  ten  darkened  hy  our  conflagVaTons  Tnour 
right  lau  the  sea,  on  our  left  and  behind  us  the  desert  made  by  our ^ 
^. ''  Atef  J^^^^  pnra//on.  and  sufferings  which  adaUed 
Chapter  XX       ^  ^"i^^feon,  by  Bourienne.     English  translation. 

Surely  if  such  is  human  nature  in  it.s  unregenerate  «tate  the  reli<rion 
So  iLVe  o?gJ!'^  ^''^  '^^''^'r^-  "^-l'g"-nt  passions  ma>  Se  suKd 
n?»nv  f  r  ^^  ^'."^  universal  charity  towards  man  ought  to  b'^  a  subject 
^ril^L  »  '"'  »-^^^her  than  that  of  contempt  and  aversion.  It  wai  a 
striking  olKservation  of  a  French  poet,  in  illustration  of  the  extreme 
wickedness  of  the  hun.an  heart,  "that\tthe  very  commencemem  of  Se 

Zube7of"thtt  r  r'"'-^  '""^*''^'^  "^^"^y  ^'•'"-  ^'  fi^«  persons,  one 
member  of  that  smaU  community  was  the  murderer  of  his  brother.'* 


^1 


4 


vtm3S!fimmm»miam 


t 


116 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


'I 


and  the  Prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded 
though  one  rose  from  the  dead."  This  very  experi- 
ment was,  we  are  assured,  on  two  remarkable  occa- 
sions, made  upon  that  stubborn  people,  and  in  both 
cases  the  result  was  precisely  what  had  been  antici- 

f|ated.  Lazarus,  the  friend  of  our  Redeemer,  was  pub- 
icly  raised  from  the  dead ;  and  the  effect  produced  was, 
that  the  Jewish  rulers  became  alarmed,  in  consequence 
of  the  increased  number  of  converts  to  the  new  faith, 
for  the  stability  of  their  ancient  institutions.  The 
resolution,  accordingly,  to  which  they  came,  was 
entirely  in  unison  with  the  spirit  of  this  world.  "  The 
chief  priests  consulted  that  they  might  put  Lazarus 
also  to  death,  because  that  by  reason  of  him  many  of 
the  Jews  went  away  and  believed  in  Jesus."  That 
same  Jesus  was  himself  miraculously  raised  up  from 
the  grave,  and  the  truth  of  his  doctrines  confirmed 
by  a  communication  of  preternatural  gifts  to  his  fol- 
fowers ;  and  again  the  conduct  of  the  same  rulers  was 
consistent  with  itself.  They  admitted,  because  it  was 
impossible  to  deny,  that  "  indeed  a  notable  miracle 
had  been  done,"  but  so  far  from  becoming  converts 
to  a  religion  which  they  feared  would  supersede  their 
own,  on  the  contrary,  "when  they  had  called  the 
Apostles  and  beaten  them,  they  commanded  that  they 
should  not  speak  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  let  them 
go."  It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  is  a  strong  resem- 
blance between  the  obstinacy,  for  it  can  scarcely  be 
called  disbelief,  of  the  later  Jews,  notwithstanding 
the  notoriety  of  our  Saviour's  miracles,  and  that  of 
their  forefathers,  who  so  repeatedly  witnessed  those 
of  Moses ;  and  we  know  also  from  experience,  that 
it  is  a  resemblance  resulting  from  the  principles  of 
our  common  nature,  which  is  ever  consistent  even  in 
its  most  anomalous  inconsistencies.  And  it  is  by  this 
strong  resemblance  that  we  are  satisfied  of  the  truth 
and  justice  of  the  drawing  in  both  instances.  But  if 
from  these  general  and  broad  principles  we  proceed, 
in  the  case  of  the  early  Jews,  to  a  more  minute 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


117 


and  detailed  examination  of  what  is  related  of  them 
by  their  historian,  the  accuracy  of  the  delineation 
becomes  more  striking  from  the  extreme  air  of  pro- 
bability with  which  he   relates  the  oscillations  of 
feeling  in  that  wayward  people,  according  as  they 
chanced  to  be  operated  upon  at  the  moment,  by  super- 
natural or  familiar  objects.     The  rebellious  spirit  of 
the  Israelites  Avas  evidently  not  that  which  would  be 
the  result  of  scepticism,  with  regard  to  the  real  nature 
of  the  miracles  which  they  had  witnessed.     On  the 
contrary,  it  was  that  alternation  of  opposite  and  con- 
tradictory modes  of  excitement  which  is  so  often  to 
be  found  in  an  ill-regulated  mind,  which  wants  steadi- 
ness of  principle  rather  than  reality  of  conviction, 
and   which   relapses    into   sin   from    weakness   and 
coarseness  of  character,  not  from  any  disbelief  in  the 
Divine  sanctions  of  religion.     Nothing,  in  fact,  can 
be  more  graphically  or  strikingly  drawn  than   the 
W'hole  description  of  the  migration  of  the  Israelites  as 
given  by  their  inspired  historian.     The  little  appre- 
hension which  they  appear  at  first  to  have  entertained 
of  the  nature  of   the  mission  of  their  leader;    the 
reckless  hurry  with  which  they  rushed  from  the  terri- 
tory of  their  oppressors  to  the  confines  of  the  Red 
Sea ;  the  deep  depression  which  thev  displayed  upon 
finding  their  retreat  apparently  cut  off;  the  extrava- 
gance of  their  joy  upon  their  miraculous  deliverance, 
followed   almost  immediately  by  an   impatience  of 
the  privations  of  the  desert,  and  a  longing  after  the 
degrading  comforts  of  their  recent  state  of  slavery; 
their  awe-stricken  apprehensions  during  the  thunder- 
ings  from  Mount  Sinai,  followed,  after  an  extremely 
short   interval,   by   an   act  of  the   grossest   idolatry; 
their  discontents,  their  jealousies,  and  heart-burnings 
against  Moses  and  their  other  rulers  ;  their  exagge- 
rated   alarm    respecting    the    physical   powers   and 
prowess  of  the  Canaanites,  and  their  conspiracy  to 
abandon  their  leaders,  and  to  return  into  Egyptian 
captivity;  all  these  are  traits  of  character  in  which 


i 


I 


^ 


118 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


119 


I! 


\, 


we  reco^ise  the  fickleness  of  human  nature  at  every 
step,  such  as  the  governors  of  every  large  assemblage 
of  people  have  bitterly  experienced ;  and  such  as  the 
reports  of  travellers,  whose  wanderings  have  more 
especially  thrown  them  in  the  way  of  uncivilized 
nations,  describe  to  us  at  the  present  moment. 

But  it  is  one  thing  to  recognise  the  characteristic 
workings  of  our  nature,  when  we  find  them  faithfully 
portrayed  for  us  in  any  well-written  record,  and 
another  to  anticipate,  by  the  intuitive  strength  of  our 
own  imagination,  what  those  workings,  under  any 
given  modification  of  circumstances,  would  be.  There 
is  a  boldness  and  an  individuality  in  the  sketches  of 
real  life  which  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  invent,  and  of 
which,  accordingly,  a  happy  and  tolerably  successful 
imitation  has  ever  been  considered  among  the  fore- 
most proofs  of  literary  taJent.  Now  the  question  is, 
whether,  putting  the  preternatural  incidents  of  the 
Jewish  history  out  of  the  question,  the  detailed  nar- 
rative does,  or  does  not,  contain  strong  internal  evi- 
dence of  its  own  authenticity.  This  is  a  query  as  to 
a  point  of  fact,  of  which  every  reasonable  person  is  a 
competent  judge,  and  which  we  cannot  but  think 
would  invariably  be  answered  in  the  affirmative. 
Perhaps  we  should  correctly  describe  it  in  stating 
it  to  be  a  surprisingly  probable  portraiture  of  human 
nature,  placed  in  an  improbable  position  as  to  external 
circumstances.  The  rebellions  and  cowardice  attri- 
buted to  the  Israelites,  whilst  under  the  guidance  of 
Moses,  never,  we  repeat,  appears  to  have  been  the 
consequence  of  any  disbelief  of  the  miracles  already 
performed  for  their  deliverence.  On  the  contrary, 
their  conduct  seems  to  have  been  precisely  what 
might  have  been  expected  from  untrained  minds ;  held, 
indeed,  together  by  the  terror  and  conviction  result- 
ing from  occasional  displays  of  superhuman  power  in 
their  conductors,  but  still  sinking  under  the  depression 
and  wear  of  animal  spirits  from  the  privations  under 


which  they  were  suffering,  and  the  difficulty  of  cal- 
culating upon  miraculous  assistance  in  future  emer- 
gencies, where  all  the  physical  powers  of  nature 
seemed  arrayed  against  them.  It  is  easy  for  those 
who  have  not  been  thus  tried  to  say,  that  the  expe- 
rience of  past  miracles  ought  to  have  given  them  a  full 
unshrinking  confidence  in  the  certainty  of  similar 
support  for  the  future.  So  in  strict  reason  it  ought. 
But  the  question  is,  not  what  is  reasonable,  or  what 
appears  to  us,  after  the  whole  train  of  circumstances 
has  become  matter  of  history,  the  most  natural  line 
of  conduct,  but  what  would  be  the  operation  of 
human  passions,  under  the  natural  impatience  pro- 
duced by  immediate  hardship  in  a  new  and  perfectly 
unexampled  position,  when  the  scorching  desert  lay 
before  and  behind  them,  and  the  confidence  inspired 
by  the  recollection  of  former  deliverances  was  met 
and  counteracted  by  the  scene  of  unvaried  desolation 
which  met  their  eyes.  "  Can  God,"  they  said,  "  furn- 
ish a  table  in  the  wilderness  ?  Behold,  he  smote 
the  rock  that  the  waters  gushed  out,  and  the  streams 
overflowed :  can  he  give  bread  also  ?  can  he  provide 
flesh  for  his  people  ?"  What  human  being  can  look 
into  his  own  heart,  and  not  feel  that  the  despondency 
which  we  charge  as  so  heavy  a  sin  upon  the  rude  and 
thoughtless  Israelites  would  not,  under  similar  cir- 
cumstances, have  been  his  own  ?  Scripture  itself,  we 
should  recollect,  whilst  it  records  the  weaknesses  and 
caprices  of  this  singular  people,  charges  their  failings 
to  no  permanent  doubt  of  the  reality  of  the  Divine 
mission  of  Moses  and  of  Joshua ;  but  to  those  fluctua- 
tions of  feeling  under  the  operation  of  momentary 
trials,  which  not  less  really  and  substantially,  though 
less  palpably,  afforded  the  explanation  of  all  the 
inconsistencies  of  human  conduct  among  individuals 
a  thousand  times  better  trained,  and  more  advanced 
in  moral  discipline,  than  the  persons  here  described. 
"And  Israel  served  the  Lord  all  the  days  of  Joshua, 


41 


4- 


'\ 


i 

i' 


^B— ><■•■■ 


120 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


and  all  the  days  of  the  elders  that  overlived  Joshua, 
and  which  had  known  all  the  works  of  the  Lord  that 
He  had  done  for  Israel."* 


CHAPTER  Xni. 

Of  the  trtternal  Evidenrf  of  the  Authenticity  of  the  Historical  Books 
of  the  Old  Testament  subsequent  to  Moses. 

The  final  extinction  of  that  generation  which  had 
witnessed  the  miracles  attendant  upon  the  first  intro- 
duction of  the  Israelites  into  Canaan  was  followed, 
as  the  general  habits  and  disposition  of  that  people 
would  lead  us  to  anticipate,  by  an  increased  apostasy 
from  the  religion  of  Jehovah,  and  an  adoption  of  the 
idolatries  of  the  neighbouring  nations.  From  this 
period  to  the  point  where  the  narrative  of  the  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  terminates,  the  recorded  course 
of  events  is  precisely  what  might  have  been  expected 
from  human  nature  placed  in  the  very  peculiar  cir- 
cumstances there  described,  but  in  those  circum- 
stances only.  The  rule  of  probability,  as  applicable 
to  this  remarkable  portion  of  history,  must  have  refer- 
ence to  a  condition  of  society  which,  at  this  moment, 
it  is  scarcely  possible  for  us  adequately  to  conceive. 
A  small  and  by  no  means  highly  civilized  nation, 
miraculously  supported  in  its  political  existence  by 
the  occasional  intervention  of  the  Almighty  himself, 
to  the  almost  total  exclusion  of  the  common  and 
regular  modes  of  defence  against  hostile  incursion, 
and  subjected  to  institutions  not  the  natural  growth 
of  the  popular  habits  and  character,  but  forcibly 
imposed  upon  them  by  a  fatality  stronger  than  them- 
selves, presents  a  picture  so  perfectly  unlike  any  thing 
which  we  are  prepared  to  meet  with  in  the  history  of 
mankind,  that  we  look  with  a  natural  curiosity  for 

*  Joaluia  xilv.  31. 


1 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


121 


the  recorded  details  of  transactions  so  extraordinary. 
The  result  is  still,  as  on  the  former  occasion,  humiliat- 
ing to  the  human  character  from  the  scene  of  moral 
degradation,  mingled,  indeed,  with  occasional  beauti- 
ful and  sublime  touches,  which  it  presents ;  and  though 
still  reniarkable  for  the  air  of  reality  with  which  the 
successive  incidents  are  related,  is  obviously  such  as 
few  impostors  could,  and  none  actuated  by  any  known 
motive  of  national  variety  or  self-interest'would,  wish 
to  invent.     The  signal  successes  which,  from  time 
to  time,  attended  their  military  expeditions,  were  so 
completely  independent  of  the  usual  natural  means 
for   their   successful  accomplishment,  that   nothing 
short  of  occasional  recurrences  of  the  most  implicit 
faith  in  the  Divine  promises,  and  in  the  continuance 
of  that  support  which  had  never  deserted  their  fore- 
fathers in  the  hour  of  need,  could  have  enabled  them 
to  calculate   upon   similar  interpositions,  in   those 
impending  perils  which  so  repeatedly  threatened  them 
with  extinction.      And,  accordingly,  we  find  in  the 
history  of  that  period  a  succession  of  alternations 
between  moments  of  extreme  depression  and  of  san- 
guine confidence,  whilst,  at  the  same  time,  the  moral 
and  religious  character  of  the  people  was,  from  the 
same  causes,  fluctuating  between  an  inveterate  hos- 
tility to  the  idolatrous  practices  of  their  Canaanitish 
neighbours,  and  an  occasional  adoption  of  their  worst 
abominations.     Such,  in  fact,  was,  more  or  less,  the 
national  character  down  to  the  time  of  the  Chaldean 
captivity.     That  under  any  view  of  the  case,  it  was 
one  by  no  means  calculated  to  add  to  ihe'credit  of  the 
people  thus  portrayed,  is  perfectly  clear.     Our  present 
business,  however,  is  not  with  the  question,  how  far 
the  Israelites  appear  to  have  acted  wonhily  of  the 
high  position  in  which  God's  selection  of  ihem  as  the 
depositaries  of  his  will  had  placed  them,  but  how  far  the 
narrative  which  records  these  transactions  comes  to  us 
with  the  stamp  and  impress  of  authenticity.      Now, 
as  the  existence  of  that  history  as  a  work,  at  all  events 

11 


ii 


if 


1 1 


I 


^1 


I 


.\ 


122 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


123 


of  very  high  antiquity,  must  be  admitted  by  all  parties, 
the  only  query  is,  "u'Ao  were  the  historians  ?^^  were 
they  friends,  or  were  they  enemies,  who  have  recorded 
the  circumstances  in  question  ?  Either  supposition, 
if  by  adopting  it  we  mean  to  imply  a  bias  in  the  mind 
of  the  writer  to  exaggerate  or  to  detract  from  the 
merits  of  the  people  described,  is  equally  inadmissible. 
The  Jewish  history  is,  clearly,  not  the  work  of  ene- 
mies to  their  name,  for  they  are  ever  spoken  of  as  the 
only  observers  of  the  true  religion,  and  as  the  chosen 
nation  of  the  one  true  God.  It  can  scarcely,  on  the  other 
hand,  be  said  to  be  the  production  of  friends,  for  its  far 
greater  proportion  is  little  more  than  a  narrative  of 
the  waywardness,  ingratitude,  and  profligacy  of  that 
self-same  people.  Again,  it  was  not  the  composi- 
tion of  any  political  party,  advocating  one  set  of  state 
maxims,  to  the  exclusion  of  others,  for  it  is  equally 
lavish  of  its  censures  upon  democracy  and  monarchy, 
whilst  it  records  the  transactions  of  both.  It  is  not 
the  calculating  panegyrist  upon  tbis  or  that  individual, 
for,  with  the  exception  of  the  few  truly  righteous 
persons  who  were  thinly  scattered  over  that  long 
period,  in  relating  the  achievements  of  the  most 
eminent  and  laudable  of  their  monarchs,  it  dwells 
with,  at  least,  an  equal  detail  and  minuteness  upon 
their  failings  and  crimes,  as  upon  their  virtues.  It 
condemns  the  reprobate  Saul,  and  yet  it  mourns  over 
his  fallen  fortunes  with  striking  pathos:  it  eulogizes 
the  sanguine,  open-hearted,  and  devout  David,  and 
yet  it  denounces  in  the  strongest  language  of  censure, 
his  ingratittfde,  blood-guiltiness,  and  adultery.  It 
recites,  with  beautiful  accuracy,  the  most  eloquent 
devotional  composition  on  record,  Solomon's  dedica- 
tion of  the  temple  ;  and  expatiates,  with  delight,  upon 
his  many  accomplishments,  and  that  various  wisdom, 
the  fame  of  which  attracted  to  his  court  the  queen  of 
the  south  ;  and  yet  it  concludes  by  narrating  his  total 
and  inexcusable  idolatry.  It  brands  with  the  taint  of 
rebellion  and  heresy,  the  long  succession  of  Israelitish 


Tcmgs,  and  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  where  censure 
appears  to  be  called  for  by  the  conduct  of  the  more 
orthodox  lineage  of  David,  it  applies  that  censure 
without  stint,  and  without  any  attempt  at  palliation. 
It,  surely,  may  be  confidently  asserted  of  any  his- 
tory, to  which  it  seems  quite  impossible  to  attach  the 
charge  of  partiality,  or  of  self-interest,  in  any  shape, 
that  its  real  end  and  object  must  have  been  truth. 
And  such  is,  undoubtedly,  the  main  impression  which 
the  history  of  the  Jewish  people,  as  given  in  the  Old 
Testament,  conveys  to  our  minds.     From  first  to  last 
there  is  nothing  in  the  whole  getting  up  of  the  nar- 
rative which  marks  selection,  or  the  grouping  and 
contrasting  characters  for  the  sake  of  eflfect,  for  sug- 
gesting a  political  inference,  or  eliciting  some  favourite 
prudential  maxim.     Its  resemblance  to  real  nature  is 
that  of  the  faithful  reflection  of  the  mirror,  and  not 
of  the  calculated  arrangement   of  the   imaginative 
painter.     Nor  is  this  all.     The  portraiture  given  to 
us  is  not  only  that  of  a  far  from  perfect  people,  but 
also  the  failings  which  we  find  successively  attributed 
to  them  are  precisely  such  as  assort  with  the  respec- 
tive periods  described.      Every  event,  every  (rait  of 
character,  is  in  the  strictest  keeping  with  the  existing 
course  of  events.      The  sins  of  the  earlier  epochs  in 
the  career  of  nations,  like  those  in  the  history  of  indi- 
viduals, are  generally  such  as  result  from  unsteady 
principles  and  desultory  passions  acting  in  defiance 
of  better  knowledge ;  whilst  the  latter  stage,  in  both 
cases,  is  disfigured  by  an  increasing  spirit  of  worldli- 
ness,  and  the  callousness  of  mind  which  so  frequently 
comes  on  when  the  season  of  novelty  and  excitement 
is  gone  by.      This  gradual  process  of  decay,  which 
constitutes  the  summary  of  the  history  of  almost  all 
the  extinct  nations  of  antiquity,  is,  in  a  striking  man- 
ner, that  of  the  fortunes  of  the  Jewish  people.     From 
the  time  of  the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes,  to  that  of  the 
captivity,  the  worst  and  most  fatal  symptom  of  ap- 
proaching dissolution  which  can  show  itself  in  the 


) 


'Ui 


124 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


.) 


^ 


body  politic,  namely,  an  increasinjr  indifference  to  the 
institutions  which  warmed  the  heart-blood  of  their 
toretathers,  became,  from  year  to  year,  more  manl- 
iest.    Though  professedly  subsisting;  upon  a  principle 
ot  miraculous  interference,  their  invocations  of  the 
Divine  protection  seem  gradually  to  have  become  less 
and   less   earnest,    and  their  reliance  upon  human 
means  ol  support,  in  spite  of  the  strong  remonstrances 
ot  the  law  and  of  the  later  prophets  upon  those  points, 
more  uniform.*      When  we  say  that  such  conduct 
was  at  least,  natural,  and  that,  in  proportion  as  such 
prodigies  as   those   which   accompanied   their   first 
growth  became  less  frequent,   their  zeal   mio^ht  be 
expected  to  decline  from  its  original  fervency,  we  are 
m  fact,  only  adding  the  sanction  of  our  judgment  as 
to   the   internal  probability  of  the  narrative  which 
asserts  it  of  them.      The  second  book  of  Kin^rs  and 
the  second  book  of  Chronicles  bear  every  mark  of 
their  own  authenticity,  from  the  striking  delineation 
which  they  afford  of  a  nation,  whose  patriotism  and 
religion  were  on  the  wane,  from  the  mere  ordinary 
tendency  to  degeneracy  which  is  the  fate  of  all  human 
institutions.      In  the  history  of  the  later  kings  of 
Judah  we  read  of  occasional  attempts  made  by  the 
sovereigns  of  the  day  to  revive  the  dormant  spirit  of 
the  religion  of  Moses,  by  removing  the  pollutions  of 

J^y^^,  l*^'^  ^^  Malachi,  the  valedictory  remonstrance  of  the  acpanino' 
8pmt  of  .Jewish  prophecy,  consists  of  li„lH  more  than  an  el<>quem  anS 
indignant  del.neanon  of  the  extreme  selfishness  and  w.^rldliness  ol7eehn2 
which  at  that  hi.e  ,>eri.)d.  had  succeeded  in  quench.ni:  a    t  cM.'t  erDrin' 
c.p  es  of  devotion  in  the  Israelitish  nation.    '-  A  s.)n lionourcHh  his  fti^hT 
and  a  servant  his  master.     If,  then,  I  be  a  father,  where!"  ninelun^^^^^^^^ 
and  If  I  be  a  master,  where  is  my  fear  7  sait  h  it.^  I/,rd  of  Hosts  ui  to  Z 
O  priests,  that  despise  my  name.    And  ye  say,  VVIierein  have  we  Sstnl 
thy  name  ?  \  e  orter  polluted  bread  u-xm  mine  altar,  and  ye  ^ly,  Where  u 
have  vve  polluted  thee  ]  In  that  ye  my,  The  table  of 'the  I^rd  iscontemp 
ble.     And  If  ye  ofTer  the  blind  for  sacrifice,  i«  it  not  evil  ?  And  if  ye  o  Lr 
the  lame  and  the  sick,  is  it  not  evil  ]  Oflbr  it  now  unto  thy  governor  -wiM 
he  be  pleased  with  thee,  or  accept  thy  person  7  Kiith  the  Lord  of  ih^ts 

nau.ht7  NS^r^tinrfS^';;:^^;;;^  il^r  liL^^'^tj:  t 


WITH   HUMAN  REASON. 


125 


the  temple,  and  reestablishing  the  sacrifices  accord- 
ing to  the  form  prescribed  by  that  legislator.      But 
these  very  attempts  obviously  mark  the  almost  com- 
plete disuse  into  which  that  religion  had  fallen.    They 
were  not  the  mere  correction  of  such  abuses  as,  in 
the  course  of  time,  might  be  supposed  to  have  crept 
in  through  the  occasional  ignorance  or  superstition 
of  the  worshippers,  but  they  were,  in  fact,  the  recon- 
struction of  ancient  usages,  which  had,  for  a  long 
course  of  time,  been  completely  lost  sight  of.      It  is 
evident  that  the  prevailing  principles  of  the  day  were 
those  of  total  irreligion  ;  and  though  the  influence  of 
a  few  well-disposed  monarchs  might  succeed,  for  a 
moment,  in  giving  an  external  and  transitory  anima- 
tion to  the  extinct  spirit  of  true  devotion,  there  was 
no  corresponding  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  people. 
We  read  of  Hezekiah,  that  he  celebrated  a  passover 
far  exceeding,  in  the  solemnity  of  the  ceremonies,  and 
in  the  assemblage  of  the  worsbippers,  any  which  had 
been  known  since  the  days  of  Solomon  :  but  we  do 
not  find  the  slightest  proofs  that  the  devotional  excite- 
ment, thus  created,  was  attended  with  any  permanent 
or  substantial  effect.      On  the  contrary,  we  read  of 
his  son  Manasseh,  that  he  polluted  himself  with  the 
grossest  idolatry  ;  and  what  is  still  more  remarkable, 
only  two  reigns  later,  from  the  surprise  and  conster- 
nation which  a  discovery  of  a  copy  of  the  original  law 
created  in  king  Josiah,  and  Hilkiah  the  high-priest, 
by  reference  to  which  they  learned  how  widely  they 
had  deviated  from  the  religion  of  their  ancestors,  we 
find  that  that  complex  system  of  sacred  legislation 
had,  for  the  space  of  one  generation  at  least,  been 
preserved  only  in  the  form  of  general  oral  tradition. 
In  this  last-mentioned  circumstance  v/e  cannot  but 
remark  the  striking  analogy  which  existed  between 
the   neglect  of  the   written  law   of   Moses,   which 
prevailed  in  the  latter  period  of  the  Jewish  history 
previous  to  the  captivity,  and  the  disregard  of  the  Holy 
bcriptures  in  general,  which  so  strongly  characterized 

11* 


<  1 


!' 


(f 


126 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH    HUMAN    REASON. 


127 


)  ' 


) 


that  languid  and  worn-out  state  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,    which   immediately  preceded   the  establish- 
ment of  Protestantism.     It  was  not,  as  we  are  in- 
formed, until  the  second  year  after  his  entry  into  the 
monastery  of  Erfurt,  that  Luther  accidentally  met 
with  a  Latin  Bible,  and  commenced  that  study  of 
original  revelation  which  shortly  afterwards  produced 
such   important   effects   upon  mankind:    so  like  is 
human  nature  in  all  ages  to  itself.      In  such  a  state 
of  moral  lethargy  as  that  which  prevailed  among 
the  Jews  at  the  period  now  described,  it  was,  clearly, 
not  within  the  power  of  the  sovereign,  however  well 
disposed,  to  stimulate  his  subjects  into  a  substantial 
reformation.     He  seems,  indeed,  to  have  done  all  that 
which  the  best  principles  could  suggest ;    "  He  sent 
and   gathered  together  all  the  elders  of  Judah  and 
Jerusalem.     And  the  king  went  up  into  the  house  of 
the  Lord,  and  all  the  men  of  Judah,  and  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Jerusalem,  and  the  priests,  and  the  Levites, 
and  all  the  people,  great  and  small.     And  he  read  in 
their  ears  all  the  words  of  the  book  of  the  covenant 
that  was  found  in  the  house  of  the  Lord.     And  the 
king  stood  in  his  place,  and  made  a  covenant  before 
the  Lord,  to  walk  after  the  Lord,  and  to  keep  his 
commandments,  and  his  testimonies,  and  his  statutes, 
with  all  his  heart,  and  with  all  his  soul;  to  perform 
the  words  of  the  covenant  which  are  written  in  this 
book  ;  and  he  caused  all  that  were  present  in  Jerusa- 
lem and  Benjamin  to  stand  to  it.     And  the  inhabitants 
of  Jerusalem  did  according  to  the  covenant  of  God, 
the  God  of  their  fathers.      And  Josiah  took  away  all 
the  abominations  out  of  all  the  countries  that  per- 
tained to  the  children  of  Israel,  and  made  all  that 
were  present  in  Israel  to  serve,  even  to  serve  the  Lord 
their  God.      And  there  was  no  passover  like  to  that 
kept  in  Israel  from  the  days  of  Samuel  the  prophet; 
neither  did  all  the  kings  of  Israel  keep  such  a  passover 
as  Josiah  kept,  and  the  priests,  and  the  Levites,  and 
all  Judah  and  Israel  that  were  present,  and  the  inhabit- 


ants  of  Jerusalem."  But  the  effort  thus  made  was 
only  like  the  last  convulsive  struggle  which  precedes 
dissolution  in  an  exhausted  frame.  The  next  "-ene- 
ration  saw  the  extinction  of  the  kingdom  of  jSdah 
and  the  commencement  of  that  series  of  tremendous 
inflictions,  which  from  that  day  to  the  present,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  more  prosperous  intervals 
have  marked  the  fortunes  of  that  singular  and  devoted 
people. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

7Vie  same  subject  continued. 

Thus,  then,  there  is  from  first  to  last  a  consistency 
in  the  chain  of  events  recorded  in  the  Jewish  Scrip- 
tures, which  would  seem  to  be  perfectly  inexplicable 
upon  any  other  principle  than  that  of  their  entire 
genuineness  and  authenticity.  The  later  writings, 
whether  we  look  to  them  for  information  on  ques- 
tions of  natural  polity,  religious  belief,  or  the  ever 
varying  shades  of  manners  and  habitual  impressions, 
all  pre-suppose  the  existence  of  the  earlier;  and  the 
earlier,  as  obviously  stamped  with  a  prospective 
character,  were  incomplete  without  the  addition  of 
the  latter.  But  as  no  hypothesis  with  which  we  are 
acquainted  will  allow  us  to  assign  the  date  of  their 
respective  compositions  to  one  and  the  same  period, 
oT  course  the  theory  that  they  were  forged  for  a 
specific  purpose  of  imposition  falls  at  once  to  the 
ground.  That  from  the  miraculous  incidents  which 
they  relate  they  are  unlike  all  other  authentic  his- 
torical documents,  is  readily  granted  ;  but  it  by  no 
means  follows  that  the  peculiarity  of  character  which 
attaches  to  them  argues  any  real  improbability  m  the 
facts  themselves.  The  abstract  question  of  probable 
or  improbable,  on  those  points,  must  rest  entirely 


1  -I 


;P 


'tl 


■«KiM 


'^^ 


V 


128 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH    HUMAN   REASON. 


129 


upon  the  degree  of  our  assent  to  the  primary  propo- 
sitions with  which  we  commenced  this  discussion. 
If  we  deem  an  express  revelation  of  the  Divine  Will, 
in  some  form  or  other,  as  not  inconsistent  with  the 
arrangements  of  Providence ;  if  we  admit,  also,  that 
of  all  presumed  revelations,  Christianity  is  the  one 
preeminently  borne  out  by  a  vast  weight  of  external 
and  internal  evidence ;  and  if  we  grant,  also,  that  from 
the  late  period  at  which  the  acknowledged  circum- 
stances of  human  nature  required  that  the  Christian 
dispensation  should  be  communicated  to  mankind,  a 
previous  provisional  and  less  perfect  system  of  dis- 
cipline might  reasonably  be  looked  for, — surely,  with 
these  warrantaljle  admissions,  the  preternatural  cha- 
racter of  the  fortunes  connected  with  the  Israelitish 
family  present  no  very  formidable  objection  to  the 
really  candid  mind.  It  may  sound  paradoxical  to 
assert  that  the  probability  of  the  truth  of  that  remark- 
able portion  of  human  history  would  be  actually 
diminished,  were  it  found  to  be  more  analogous  than 
it  actually  is  with  that  of  other  nations.  Considered, 
however,  as  an  abstract  proposition,  unconnected 
with  that  habitual  bias  and  predisposition  forced  upon 
us  by  our  own  individual  experience,  such  undoubt- 
edly would  appear  to  be  the  legitimate  assumption. 
Certainly,  if  we  are  reduced  to  the  alternative  of 
either  discarding  the  momentous  and  cheering  hopes 
held  forth  by  the  Gospel,  with  its  accompanying  prac- 
tical rule  of  life,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  of  admitting 
the  fact  that  a  visible  Providence  did,  from  the  world's 
beginning,  prepare  the  way  for  that  sublime  dispen- 
sation, and  only  ceased  finally  to  interfere  when  such 
interposition  was  no  longer  needed,  the  latter  suppo- 
sition, independently  of  the  vast  preponderance  of 
external  testimony  by  which  it  is  guaranteed,  is  a 
thousand  times  the  most  intrinsically  probable.  With 
this  vi^w  of  the  question,  then,  we  may  surely  be 
content,  without  seeking  to  shelter  ourselves  in  that 
intermediate  and  most  unphilosophical  scheme  which, 


admitting  Christianity  to  be  a  gift  from  heaven,  would 
flinch  from  the  supposition  that  the  preparatory  ar- 
rangements for  the  communication  of  that  gift  could 
possibly  proceed  from  other  than  natural  causes.  If 
we  would  preserve  our  consistency  of  argument,  we 
must  either  deny  in  toto  the  possibility  of  any  mira- 
culous intervention  whatever  in  the  case  of  the  latter 
no  less  than  of  the  former  covenant;  or,  if  we  find 
ourselves  obliged,  by  the  irresistible  force  of  evidence, 
to  pass  that  line,  we  must  be  content  to  admit  the 
reality  of  such  special  acts  of  Providence,  not  in  such 
proportion  only  as  our  caprice  or  prejudices  may 
dictate,  but  as  the  only  authentic  writings  extant 
which  have  reference  to  the  case  appear  broadly  and 
manifestly  to  assert.  At  the  same  time  it  is  but 
reasonable  to  observe,  that  the  first  impression  con- 
veyed to  our  minds  by. the  perusal  of  the  inspired 
historians  is,  perhaps,  that  of  a  state  of  things  less 
analogous  to  the  ordinary  course  of  human  events 
than  was  actually  the  case  with  regard  to  the  trans- 
actions related.  The  miraculous  events  related  in 
the  Bible,  in  consequence  of  the  condensation  of  the 
narrative,  often  occupy  a  much  nearer  position,  with 
reference  to  one  another,  in  the  associations  of  our 
minds,  than  would  accord  with  the  respective  periods 
of  their  occurrence.  A  few  pages  of  the  sacred  his- 
tory are,  we  should  recollect,  sometimes  the  register 
of  the  events  of  several  centuries.  Miracles,  even  at 
the  period  of  their  greatest  frequency,  must  ever  have 
been  thinly  scattered  among  the  habitual  incidents 
of  human  life.  Most  probably,  by  far  the  greater 
portion  of  the  express  deviations  from  the  established 
laws  of  nature,  permitted  by  Providence  since  the 
creation  of  man,  are  enumerated  in  the  Bible. 
These,  if  spread  over  the  long  course  of  time  which 
the  sacred  narrative  comprehends,  will  be  found  to 
bear  a  very  trifling  proportion  to  tlie  whole.  It  is 
obvious,  accordingly,  that  the  most  favoured  of  God's 
saints  must  ever  have  had  more  to  do  with  the  cal- 


I 


li  1 


I 


ff 


\ 


130 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


culat.on  of  common  contingences,  and  the  makin<r 
provision  for  tl.e  supply  of  human  want  by  humaS 
means  than  our  habitual  impressions,  derived  from 
our  study  of  the  sacred  writings,  would 'sujrge't  Tl™ 
Elijah  of  the  Old,  and  the  Paul  of  the  New  Testa! 
inent,  may  be  quoted  as  cases  in  point  with  reference 
to  this  remark.     Both  these  merliorable  persona  "es 

ve   D^vin'"''  ''"'^  '"  "°'y  ^^"''  »>^J  'heir  respV 
tive  Divine  communications  and  their  miraculous 

TrT^e  n«  ''r '^  H'''  ''^"''  '^''"  '°"?  visitation  of 
alarm,  of  dilhculty,  of  penury,  and  of  danger.     The 

occasional  helps  afforded  them  seem  to  have  been 

Iheir '^kt'  o7h '  '^'k  '^'  '°'^  P."^P°^'=  °f  substantiating 
fZ  nS  1  ■  •='?f  »"ff  i  G^d's  chosen  messen" 
gers,  and  only  incidentally  for  the  protection  of  the 
body,  and  the  furtherance  of  their  personal  comfort! 
This  observation  has  already  been  adduced,  in  order 

LrZTl  u  "^u"'  '"'''"y  P"^°»^  »»=»^e  considered 
the  remarkable  phenomena  of  the  very  unsteady  faith 
produced  in  the  minds  of  the  persons  who  were  e^L- 
w.  nesses  of   the   miracles  recorded  in  the  sacr^ed 
writings.      Even  under  the  most  extreme  circum- 
s  ances,  the  natural  incidents  produced  by  the  esta- 
Wished  course  of  events  must  numerically  have  far 
exceeded  the  special  deviations  here  alluded  to.    Bu[ 
as  our  calculations  for  the  future,  by  an  admitted  law 
of  our  nature,  are  entirely  regulated  by  our  experience 
of  the  past.  It  is  evident  that  the  main  impression 
left  upon  the  m.nds,  even  of  the  most  openly  FayZld 

tinn  nf  L'f 'T'''  T'^  T"  *>''^^  ''^^^  «he  aniicipa- 
tion  of  natural,  rather  than  of  preternatural,  occur- 
rences in  the  yet  unrevealed  events  of  futurity 
Fictitious  narratives  of  wonder,  whether  intended  for 
the  purposes  of  amusement  or  imposture,  whether  in 
he  shape  of  the  wild  dreams  of  romance,  or  of  the 
egends  of  Romish  hagiology,  are  ever  prodicral  of 
their  attempts  to  astonish  us  by  the  prodigies  which 

St  oS;.  ^Y^'"7'  °"  ">«  -"'-ry.  nevertseS 
sight  of  the  analogy  of  common  nature  and  of  truth; 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


131 


i 


but,  with  that  harmony  and  simplicity  of  character 
which  pervades  the  material  universe,  ever  produces 
Its  great  transcendental  ends  by  the  least  possible 
expenditure  o[  means. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Further  observation,  upon  th-t  moral  tendency  of  the  Levilical 

IneUtulions. 

The  presumed  argument  against  the  Divine  au- 
thority  of  the  Old  Testament,  derived  from  the  very 
Jovv  degree  of  moral  merit  manifested  by  the  Jews 
throughout   their   whole  history,  has  been   already 
alluded  to  m  some  detail ;  but  it  may  not,  perhaps, 
be  minroper  to  revert  to  it,  in  this  place,  for  the  sake 
ol  a  tew  more  observations  which  the  subject  will 
admit.     The  great  force  of  this  objection  is,  as  it 
would  seem,  broken  down  at  once,  if  we  tyrant  that 
presuming  that  God  prefers  accomplishing  his  ends 
through  the  mtervenlion  of  secondary,  and,  so  far  as 
is  possible,  what  are  usually  deemed  natural  causes 
the  selection  of  at  least  one  nation,  as  the  deposital 
ries  of  his  will-  prior  to  the  final  communication  of 
the  Christian  system,  was  rendered  absolutely  neces- 
sary by  that  tendency  to  idolatry  which  forms  so 
striking   a  characteristic   of   human   nature   in    its 
undisciplined  state.     Why  man  was  so  created,  as 
to  be  liable  to  such  aberrations,  it  is  not  for  us  to 
discuss.     The  certainty  of  the  fact  is  quite  sufficient 
lor  the  present  argument.   Had  the  Mosaic  law  never 
existed  in  other  words,  had  the  Jewish  nation  never 
been   thus  especially  favoured,  what,  as  has  been 
already  asked,  can  we  imagine  would  have  been  the 
reception  afforded  to  the  preaching  of  Christ  and  of 
his  apostles,  in  the  four  thousandth  year  of  the  world  ? 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  the  whole  moral  feel- 


h 


I 


132 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


133 


ing  of  mankind  would  have  undergone  a  complete 
wreck  long  before  that  time.  The  degrading  effects 
of  barbarism,  and  the  scarcely  less  pernicious  conse- 
quences of  false  philosophy  and  selfish  casuistry, 
would  have  succeeded  in  entirely  obliterating  all  that 
pure  sensitiveness  of  principle  on  which  all  the  inter- 
nal evidences  and  all  the  practical  value  of  religion 
depend.  This  foremost,  and  otherwise  inevitable, 
evil,  was  undoubtedly  obviated,  in  a  great  measure, 
by  the  promulgation  of  the  written  Mosaic  liw,  and 
by  the  special  sanctions  given  through  it  to  the  great 
primary  truths  of  religion  and  morals,  and  by  the 
executive  enforcement  of  those  sanctions,  under  a 
theocratical  government,  for  so  many  centuries.  That 
the  nation,  thus  selected,  fulfilled  the  task  assigned 
to  it,  by  preserving  entire  the  principles  of  true  reli- 
gion, is  an  indisputable  fact.  With  the  economy  of 
this  arrangement,  then,  it  appears  impossible  for  our 
reason  to  quarrel,  especially  as  it  appears  probable 
that,  with  all  their  defects,  the  Jews  were  still  as  fit 
instruments  for  the  purposes  of  Providence,  and  as 
little  objectionable,  on  the  score  of  moral  desert,  as 
any  other  people  of  that  early  period  in  which  the 
selection  was  made.  Our  knowledge  of  the  state  of 
society  at  that  epoch  is  confined  to  what  we  can  col- 
lect from  the  sacred  writings,  with,  perhaps,  a  few 
very  uncertain  conjectures,  derivable  from  the  preca- 
rious testimony  of  early  Pagan  writers.  Europe,  if 
inhabited  at  all,  must  at  that  time  have  been  the  resi- 
dence of  a  mere  horde  of  savages:  the  facts  recorded 
of  the  Egyptians  are  any  thin^^  rather  than  favourable 
to  them,  as  a  humane  and  polished  people,  whilst  the 
inhabitants  of  Canaan  are  known  to  have  been  pol- 
luted by  the  worst  stains  which  can  disfigure  human 
nature.  Was,  then,  the  scheme  of  Providence  to  be 
suspended,  because  the  history  of  mankind  was  thus 
dark  and  uninviting?  Because  the  whole  existing 
human  race  was  vicious,  was  it  therefore  to  be 
allowed  to  continue  so,  or  to  sink  still  deeper  in  moral 


degradation,  rather  than  that  the  Divine  wisdom 
should  avail  itself  of  incidental  causes  for  effecting  a 
cure  ?   This  is  the  real  question,  which  the  ur^^ers^of 
the  above-mentioned  objection  are  bound  to  answer, 
or  to  abandon   their  position.     The  Deist  himself 
admits,  that  the  system  of  God's  government  is  to 
make  the  machinery  of  human  passions  conduce  to 
the  accomplishment  of  his  wise  purposes;  but  this 
admission,  if  true,  is  not  the  less  so  because  we  may 
chance  to  arrive  at  it  through  the  declarations  of  an 
mspired  writer,  rather  than  through  the  conclusions 
of  the  moralist  and  philosopher.     The  very  peculiar 
position  of  the  Jewish  people,  with  respect  to  the 
singular   covenant   under  which  they  w^re  placed, 
affords,  however,  another  most  important  instruction 
to  mankind.     In  Judaism  and  Christianity  we  have 
two  parallel  but  opposed  cases,  of  equallv  authentic 
Divine  revelation,  professedly  established  upon  dis- 
similar, though,  with  reference  to  their  respective 
objects,    equally  consistent,   views  of  God's   moral 
government.     The  law  of  Moses  displays  to  our  con- 
templation a  perfectly  just  but  strictly  retributive 
Governor  of  the  universe ;  that  of  Christ,  a  reconciled 
judge,  not  less  intrinsically  just,  but  shielding  the 
rigour  of  his  justice  in  the  attributes  of  unbounded 
mercy.     In  order  duly  to  appreciate  the  full  beauty 
of  the  latter  dispensation,  it  is  quite  necessary  that 
we  should  previously  have  accustomed  our  minds  to 
contemplate  the  rigorous  and  inflexible  enactments 
of  the  former.     No  stronger  appeal  can  possibly  be 
made  to  the  feelings  of  a  human  being,  Avho  has 
recently  been  rescued  from  some  dreadful  impending 
danger,  than  that  afforded  by  the  retrospect  of  the 
very  perils  from  which  he  has  providentiallv  escaped. 
The  mind,  at  such  a  moment,  takes  a  natural  delight 
m  representing  to  itself  all  the  horrors  with  which  it 
had  been  threatened,  and  contrasting  them  with  the 
tranquillity  and  security  of  its  present  position.  Such 
feelings,  in  a  well-constructed  nature,  are  invariably 

12 


i 


It 

'7 


if 


132 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


133 


ing  of  mankind  would  have  undergone  a  complete 
wreck  long  before  that  time.  The  degrading  effects 
of  barbarism,  and  the  scarcely  less  pernicious  conse- 
quences of  false  philosophy  and  selfish  casuistry, 
would  have  succeeded  in  entirely  obliterating  all  that 
pure  sensitiveness  of  principle  on  which  all  the  inter- 
nal evidences  and  all  the  practical  value  of  religion 
depend.  This  foremost,  and  otherwise  inevitable, 
evil,  was  undoubtedly  obviated,  in  a  great  measure, 
by  the  promulgation  of  the  written  Mosaic  hw,  and 
by  tbe  special  sanctions  given  through  it  to  the  great 
primary  truths  of  religion  and  morols,  and  by  the 
executive  enforcement  of  those  sanctions,  under  a 
theocratical  government,  for  so  many  centuries.  That 
the  nation,  thus  selected,  fulfilled  the  task  assigned 
to  it,  by  preserving  entire  the  principles  of  true  reli- 
gion, is  an  indisputable  fact.  With  the  economy  of 
this  arrangement,  then,  it  appears  impossible  for  our 
reason  to  quarrel,  especially  as  it  appears  probable 
that,  with  all  their  defects,  the  Jews  were  still  as  fit 
instruments  for  the  purposes  of  Providence,  and  as 
little  objectionable,  on  the  score  of  moral  desert,  as 
any  other  people  of  that  early  period  in  which  the 
selection  was  made.  Our  knowledge  of  the  state  of 
society  at  that  epoch  is  confined  to  what  we  can  col- 
lect from  the  sacred  writings,  with,  perhaps,  a  few 
very  uncertain  conjectures,  derivable  from  the  preca- 
rious testimony  of  early  Pagan  writers.  Europe,  if 
inhabited  at  all,  must  at  that  time  have  been  the  resi- 
dence of  a  mere  horde  of  savages :  the  facts  recorded 
of  the  Egyptians  are  any  thing  rather  than  favourable 
to  them,  as  a  humane  and  polished  people,  whilst  the 
inhabitants  of  Canaan  are  known  to  have  been  pol- 
luted by  the  worst  stains  which  can  disfigure  human 
nature.  Was,  then,  the  scheme  of  Providence  to  be 
suspended,  because  the  history  of  mankind  was  thus 
dark  and  uninviting?  Because  the  whole  existing 
human  race  Avas  vicious,  was  it  therefore  to  be 
allowed  to  continue  so,  or  to  sink  still  deeper  in  moral 


degradation,  rather  than  that  the  Divine  wisdom 
should  avail  itself  of  incidental  causes  for  effectin*'  a 
cure  ?  This  is  the  real  question,  which  the  urgers^of 
the  above-mentioned  objection  are  bound  to  aliswer, 
or  to  abandon  their  position.  The  Deist  himself 
admits,  that  the  system  of  God's  government  is  to 
make  the  machinery  of  human  passions  conduce  to 
the  accomplishment  of  his  wise  purposes;  but  this 
admission,  if  true,  is  not  the  less  so  because  we  may 
chance  to  arrive  at  it  through  the  declarations  of  an 
inspired  writer,  rather  than  through  the  conclusions 
of  the  moralist  and  philosopher.  The  very  peculiar 
position  of  the  Jewish  people,  with  respect  to  the 
singular  covenant  under  which  they  were  placed, 
affords,  however,  another  most  important  instruction 
to  mankind.  In  Judaism  and  Christianity  we  have 
tAvo  parallel  but  opposed  cases,  of  equally  authentic 
Divine  revelation,  professedly  established  upon  dis- 
similar, though,  with  reference  to  their  respective 
objects,  equally  consistent,  views  of  God's  moral 
government.  The  law  of  Moses  displays  to  our  con- 
templation a  perfectly  just  but  strictly  retributive 
Governor  of  the  universe :  that  of  Christ,  a  reconciled 
judge,  not  less  intrinsically  just,  but  shielding  the 
rigour  of  his  justice  in  the  attributes  of  unbounded 
mercy.  In  order  duly  to  appreciate  the  full  beauty 
of  the  latter  dispensation,  it  is  quite  necessary  that 
we  should  previously  have  accustomed  our  minds  to 
contemplate  the  rigorous  and  inflexible  enactments 
of  the  former.  No  stronger  appeal  can  possibly  be 
made  to  the  feelings  of  a  human  being,  who  has 
recently  been  rescued  from  some  dreadful  impending 
danger,  than  that  afforded  by  the  retrospect  of  the 
very  perils  from  which  he  has  providentially  escaped. 
The  mind,  at  such  a  moment,  takes  a  natural  delight 
in  representing  to  itself  all  the  horrors  with  which  it 
had  been  threatened,  and  contrasting  them  with  the 
tranquillity  and  security  of  its  present  position.  Such 
feelings,  in  a  well-constructed  nature,  are  invariably 

12 


I  i 


• 


134 


CONSISTENCY  OF  REVELATION 


accompanied  by  a  sense  of  humility,  of  self-abase- 
^aI'  ^^"r  °^  ^^a^^tude  to  that  power  to  which  it  is 
indebted  for  protection.     Now,  if  a  Christian  avouM 
^now  the  very  exceeding  value  of  the  immense  -ifis 
which  have  been  conferred  upon  him  by  the  covenant 
o  A?      uP^^*  he  must,  for  that  purpose,  study,  in  fear 
and  trembling  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament.    He 
will  there  find  the  veil  of  mystery,  which  at  this 
moment  conceals  the  really  existing  agency  of  Pro- 
vidence  upon   his  creatures,   withdrawn,    and   the 
whole  mechanism  of  the  Divine  gonernment  of  the 
attairs  of  this  world  exposed  bare  to  his  view.     He 
will  see  the  necessary  connexion,  as  certain  as  that 
ot  any  other  regular  series  of  cause  and  effect,  which 
exist  between  obedience  to  God's   will  and  happi- 
ness, between  disobedience  and  misery.     It  is  true 
that  he  can  no  longer  calculate  upon  that  immediate 
temporal  retribution  which  formed  an  essential  part 
ot  that  system  of  theocracy  which  constituted  the 
national  polity  of  the  Jews,  but  he  will  see,  with  no 
less  certainty  of  conviction,  that  the  delay  of  execu- 
tion  argues  no  forgetfulness  in  the  Almighty  mind 
nor  any  unsteadiness  of  purpose.     Though  sickened' 
as  he  reads  by  the  details  of  human  follp  and  S 
edness  in  their  worst  shapes,  he  will  find  the  deep 
abomination  of  sin  denounced  with  no  less  fearful 

S^nnH  ?l"^"'"'  VH  Old  Testament  than  in  the 
iVew,  and  the  great  Author  of  all  things  spoken  of 
with  an  awe-stricken  solemnity  of  feeling,  faVexceed- 
mg  any  thing  which  ever   suggested  Ttself  to  the 
most  eloquent  of  Pagan  poets  or  philosophers,  in  their 
subhmest  moments  of  fancy.    He  will  learn  by  wha[ 
an  elaborate  process  of  expiatory  sacrifices  and  pur- 
gations our  fallen  nature  was  ineffectually  attempted 
to  be  cleansed  for  a  long  succession  of  ages,Tefore 
the  accomplishment  of  the  one  great  and%uffic  ent 
sacrifice  in  the  person  of  Christ.     He  will  read  whh 
what  parental   anxiety  He,   whom  the  heaven   of 
Heavens  cannot  contain,  watches  over  the  smallest 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


135 


occurrences  upon  earth;  with  what  searching  intui- 
tiveness  he  looks  into  the  most  minute  germs  of 
thought  in  the  human  breast;  with  what  strict  but 
kind  severity  he  checks  man's  deviations  from  recti- 
tude ;  with  what  eagerness  of  affection  he  hails  the 
first  symptoms  of  contrition  and  of  practical  amend- 
ment. But  the  result  of  the  inquiry  will  be  that  of 
amazed  self-abasement  and  humiliation,  from  the 
conviction  of  the  utter  inability  of  unredeemed 
human  nature  to  stand  in  the  presence  of  Him,  in 
whose  sight  the  very  heavens  are  unclean,  and  who 
charges  even  his  angels  with  folly.  Human  phi- 
losophy, by  lowering  the  standard  of  religious  moral- 
ity, may  have  some  refuge  of  hope,  in  the  idea  that 
a  moderate,  or,  as  it  has  been  called,  a  congruous, 
degree  of  merit  will  be  all  that  will  be  required  of  us. 
It  may  represent  the  Divine  Being  as  good-natured, 
if  we  may  presume  to  use  such  an  expression  upon 
such  an  occasion,  rather  than  merciful ;  and  indiffer- 
ent to  the  distinctions  of  human  conduct,  rather  than 
disposed  to  measure  it  by  the  rule  of  faultless  perfec- 
tion. But  the  Old  Testament  affords  none  of  this 
false  and  spurious  consolation.  It  asserts,  with  all 
the  uncompromising  severity  of  truth,  the  general 
baseness  and  selfishness  of  the  human  heart ;  and, 
though  it  announces,  in  no  less  clear  language,  the 
infinite  benevolence  of  the  Creator,  it  supplies  no 
solution  of  the  difficulty,  how  the  exercise  of  that 
benevolence  may  be  rendered  compatible  with  the 
workings  of  retributive  justice,  excepting  by  a  few 
occasional  interspersed  hints  of  some  intended  pro- 
spective arrangement,  by  which,  in  the  fulness  of 
time,  this  grand  anomaly  should  be  explained  and 
reconciled.  And  in  this  awful  state  of  uncertainty 
that  earlier  portion  of  the  inspired  Scriptures  leaves 
us,  with  our  apprehensions  awakened,  with  a  con- 
viction of  the  entire  inadequacy  of  ritual  expiations, 
to  accomplish  their  object,  and  with  faint  but  inde- 
finite hopes,  that  the  concluding  scene  in  this  grand 


I 


4 


1 


136 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


and  momentous  drama  may  prove  more  satisfactory 
than  the  preceding. 

Now  it  is  impossible  to  deny,  that  virithout  such 
thrilling  conviction  of  the  necessity  of  some  scheme 
of  efficacious  redemption,  as  is  forced  upon  our  feel- 
ings by  the  awful  system  of  preparation  developed  in 
the  Old  Testament,  and  the  fearful  exposition  of  the 
danger  attaching  to  man's  natural  position,  as  a 
moral  and  responsible  agent,  we  should  all  of  us 
entertain  very  inadequate  notions  of  the  immense 
value  of  that  expiation  afforded  by  the  covenant  of  the 
Gospel.  No  worldly  blessing  is  duly  appreciated  by 
us  until  its  want  has  been  severely  felt,  and  a  present 
enjoyment  is  then  only  perceived  in  its  full  intensity, 
when  we  contrast  it  with  the  lot  which,  under  other 
circumstances,  might  have  been  ours.  Infinitely 
beneficent,  therefore,  as  the  Christian  dispensation  is, 
our  Creator  has  wisely  contrived  all  the  avenues  and 
approaches  to  it,  so  as  to  afford  the  benefit  of  striking 
and  impressive  contrast.  He  begins  as  the  God  of 
terrors,  he  concludes  as  the  God  of  mercy  :  he  makes 
his  covenant  a  covenant  of  grace,  not  of  works,  in 
order  that  no  man  may  boast :  he  hath  concluded  all 
under  sin,  that  he  might  have  mercy  upon  all. 

The  place,  then,  occupied  by  the  Mosaic  ritual,  in 
the  scheme  of  revelation,  is  precisely  that  which,  if 
Christianity  be  true,  our  retrospective  review  of  the 
whole  system  would  naturally  assign  to  it.  As  a 
schoolmaster  to  bring  us  to  Christ,  it  is  most  admira- 
bly constructed  in  all  its  parts.  As  a  code  of  reli- 
gious morality  it  is,  so  far  as  it  reaches,  in  all  respects 
worthy  of  the  holy  source  from  which  it  proceeded. 
Still,  however,  it  in  some  measure  confessedly  is,  as 
indeed  from  theory  it  might  be  expected  to  be,  imper- 
fect in  the  character  of  its  enactments ;  for  were  il 
otherwise,  tte  subsequent  dispensation  of  the  Gospel 
would  have  been  unnecessary.  So  far,  then,  from 
wishing  to  draw  a  veil  over  this  partial  imperfection, 
we  may  confidently  refer  to  it  as  affording  one  proof 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


137 


the  more  of  its  Divine  origin.  Let  not  this  observa- 
tion be  deemed  paradoxical.  No  inference,  from  our 
daily  experience  of  the  measures  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence, is  more  certain  than  that  which  assures  us, 
that  however  the  Divine  wisdom  may  contrive  all 
things  relatively  for  the  best,  its  system  is  that  of 
successive  gradations,  in  no  one  stage  of  which,  except, 
perhaps,  the  very  highest,  our  abstract  notions  of  the 
capability  of  good  are  effectively  realized.  The  Le- 
vitical  institutions,  we  should  recollect,  were  specially 
adapted  to  meet  the  wants  and  to  promote  the  prac- 
tical moral  habits  of  what,  with  reference  to  the 
improved  habits  of  modern  times,  we  must  consider 
a  subordinate  state  of  society.  Consequently,  institu- 
tions, which,  at  the  present  day,  would  certainly  be 
superfluous,  and,  probably,  detrimental,  may  readily 
be  imagined,  at  that  early  period,  to  have  been  intro- 
duced by  Divine  wisdom  into  a  code,  the  object  of 
which  was  to  operate  beneficially  upon  the  habits  of 
a  peculiar  people.  It  is  not,  therefore,  only  in  its 
obvious  insufficiency  as  a  means  of  spiritual  grace 
and  expiation,  that  we  willingly  recognise  the  imper- 
fection of  the  Mosaic  ritual.  Even  its  social  enact- 
ments, we  readily  acknowledge,  are,  in  some  cases, 
stamped  with  an  appearance  of  rudeness  unseemly  to 
our  present  modes  of  thinking,  and  strongly  charac- 
teristic of  an  early  stage  of  civil  polity,  and  of  com- 
parative incivilization.  As  some  of  these  points  may 
seem  -at  first  sight  to  trench  upon  some  established 
maxims  of  Christian  morality,  and  have  consequently 
been  often  pointed  out  by  the  infidel  as  inconsistent 
with  the  supposition,  that  institutions  thus  defective 
could  possibly  be  the  work  of  a  Divine  legislator,  it 
may  be  expedient  to  examine  them,  on  this  occasion, 
with  some  degree  of  detail. 

The  usage  of  polygamy,  and  the  liberty  of  divorce, 
are  among  the  most  prominent  of  these  instances  ;  to 
which  may  be  added,  the  sanction  given  to  domestic 
slavery,  and  the  severe  punishments  annexed  to  the 

12* 


■] 


f 


138 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN  REASON. 


139 


want  of  chastity  in  females,  and  to  the  disobedience 
of  cliildren  toward  their  parents.  The  advancers  of 
these  objections,  however,  have,  unfortunately  for 
their  argument,  overlooked  the  important  distinction 
which  exists  between  the  law  of  Moses  and  that  of 
Christ,  namely,  that  the  former,  especially  and  pro- 
minently, is,  what  the  latter  certainly  is  not,  a  code 
of  civil  polity,  and  of  criminal  jurisdiction,  no  less 
than  a  system  of  religious  doctrine.  In  the  legislator 
of  the  Jews,  therefore,  was  necessarily  blended  the 
sternness  of  the  jurist  and  of  the  judge,  together  with 
the  more  attractive  meekness  of  the  spiritual  teacher. 
This  circumstance,  of  course,  imposed  upon  him  the 
duty  of  enforcing  many  painful,  though  expedient, 
regulations,  from  the  inconvenience  of  which,  in 
consequence  of  its  exclusively  spiritual  character,  the 
covenant  of  the  Gospel  escapes.*  The  Christian 
student  may,  accordingly,  peruse  the  whole  of  the 
writings  of  the  New  Testament  with  no  other  feelings 
than  those  of  love  to  God  and  man  in  their  purest  and 
most  exalted  state ;  whilst  the  unattractive  enact- 
ments of  a  criminal  code,  entering,  as  such  works 
must  do,  into  all  the  possible  details  of  crime,  and 
imposing  upon  each  their  peculiar  penalties,  are  kept 
out  of  view,  as  belonging  to  the  department  of  the 
civilian,  and  not  of  the  divine.  The  penal  ordinances 
of  the  Jewish  laAV,  on  the  contrary,  intermingled,  as 
they  are,  with  the  warmest  breathings  of  humanity 

• 

•  Some  of  the  civil  institutions  of  Moses  strongly  remindusof  the  well- 
known  apologue,  in  which  a  dying  husbandman  isrolatecj  to  have  induced 
his  sons  to  bestow  a  complete  course  of  manual  labour  upon  the  soil  of 
his  vineyard,  by  exciting  their  hopes  of  discovering  a  concealed  treasure. 
Had  the  Jewish  legislator  contented  himself  with  merely  enjoining  cleanly 
and  wholesome  habits  to  his  uncivilized  countrymen,  it  is  probable  that 
the  mandate  would  have  been  disreganled,  or,  at  all  events,  attended  to 
In  a  slovenly  and  perfunctory  marmer.  But  by  consecrating  cleanlineae 
by  a  course  of  ritual  performances,  and  subjecting  the  slightest  leprous 
tendency  upxm  their  persons,  or  the  stainsof  mildew  on  the  walls  of  their 
dwellings,  to  a  series  of  religious  expiations,  the  end  and  purpose  of  civil- 
ization were  secured,  even  before  the  feelings  which  accomj)any  a  more 
advanced  stage  of  society  were  developed.  We  surely  cannot  deny  the 
praise  of  great  secular  wisdom  to  such  an  arrangement. 


and  religious  purity,  contain  much  which,  though 
often  necessary  as  provisionary  regulations,  even  in 
the  most  advanced  age  of  human  civilization,  must 
still  be,  after  all,  unpleasant  subjects  of  perusal ; 
whilst  also,  as  intended  for  the  instruction  and  coer- 
cion of  a  semi-barbarous  people,  they  exhibit  views 
of  possible  crime,  which,  in  our  more  improved  state 
of  manners,  can  be  contemplated  only  with  feelings 
of  repugnance.  Common  candour,  however,  and  a 
very  little  degree  of  reflection,  will  serve  to  show  us 
that  the  objections  raised  against  the  Divine  origin  of 
the  Mosaic  institutions,  on  this  account,  are  without 
the  slightest  foundation  of  justice.  Once  admitting 
the  possibility  of  the  Divine  Being  condescending  to 
legislate,  in  a  secular  sense,  for  any  society  of  human 
creatures,  it  appears  to  follow,  as  a  matter  of  absolute 
necessity,  that  the  regulations  intended  to  operate 
practically  upon  the  habits  of  the  governed  must  have 
reference  to  the  existing  state  of  manners  and  of 
knowledge :  and  not  only  so,  but  (unless  we  would 
assert,  that  a  people  thus  divinely  instructed  should 
also  be  forced,  by  a  continued  miracle,  into  a  precocity 
of  civilization  naturally  unattainable  by  any  other 
than  a  very  slow  and  tedious  process,)  we  must  admit, 
also,  that  a  legislature,  even  of  this  high  order,  must 
be  content  to  tolerate,  for  a  while,  those  minor  abuses 
which,  humanly  speaking,  it  is  impossible  imme- 
diately to  eradicate.  Under  such  circumstances,  the 
true  wisdom  would  appear  to  be  to  soften,  by  the 
interposition  of  salutary  and  sober  precautions,  the 
rash  impetuosity  of  rude  justice,  as  usually  adminis- 
tered by  nations  so  little  advanced  in  cultivation  as 
that  now  alluded  to  ;  and  whilst  appearing,  perhaps, 
to  connive  at  usao^es  which  the  hicrhest  reason  cannot 
altogether  approve,  to  set  quietly  into  action  better 
principles,  the  sure  ultimate  result  of  which  would  be 
the  eradication  of  the  original  abuse,  by  a  necessary 
improvement  of  the  moral  habits.  This  latter  is  the 
precise  vindicalioa  of  the  law  of  Moses  with  regard 


( 


I 


140 


CONSISTENCY  OF  REVELATION 


to  his  permission  of  divorce  adduced  by  our  blessed 
Saviour  himse  f.      "  Mose^  beraii«P  nfih^u  "T 
of  vour  heirtc  c,.fl-„    ^""*«^*'  Because  of  tlie  hardness 

b m  frnJ^fk    I'    ^^■^'^  y°"  '°  P"'  away  your  wives  • 
bu  from  the  beginning  it  was  not  so."    With  re-a^d 

Xnrurf^o°'Err.ji^;^Tir^^~^' 

advanced  state  .of  civiliS,  S  T  tu  f  a  'uV^ 

b1£taiS"tr,Virte 

would  nromf.'e  1  .1  *''^"^*'"^*«  ^"^    selfishness  it 

w ith  ,Kr?'  '^"'^.ihe  minor  inconveniences  connected 
with  the  transmission  of  pronertv  whiVh  ;.  ,.,^  ij 

Ocrasinn    o.MI    .1,  -i  l"yj'criy    wnicn    it  WOUld 

occasion   stili,  the  evils  result  ng  from  such  nermk 

with  something  like  a  compensation  for  iJs  own  m^ 
chief  by  the  incidental  benefit  which  it  m IhTsome: 
times  produce.     In  that  low  sta-e  of  sociuv  Xl 
the  female  sex  has  not  yet  attained  to  its  SerTnfl., 
ence,   and  where  the  practice  of  slaverT  w  ,h  i^,' 
general  accompaniment  of  promiscuous  co'^cubina-^e 
might  be  expected  to  depress  that  more  help"ess  nor' 
tion  of  the  human  race  still  lower  from  that  noLrof 
respectful  attachment  to  which  it  is  en  itle^d   evei 
polygamy  itself  might  often  operate  as  a  corr'ecdve 
of  the  coarseness  of  an  overbearing  master  aXi^ht 
tend  to  raise  to  a  comparative  elevation  persons  whose 

ibasTi'ntt  r7r  '^'^  ''^«"  °"«  'f  unZgZ 
aoaseinent.      The  enactment  contained  in  the  list 

chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  and  in  verses  from  10th  to 
14th,  exact  y  corresponds  with  this  view  of  Uie  inten- 
tion of  the  legislator,  with  respect  to  his  tole  ation  of 

r.?,h  f^^""  *ir'''°"-  Admitting,  however  the 
truth  of  these  observations,  as  resulting  fl^  ,hf 
acknowledged  depravity  of  human  rassionsfand  tt 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


141 


slow  process  through  which  they  attain  to  a  higher 
state  of  refinement,  still  we  cannot  but  place  in  an 
advantageous  contrast  with  a  permission  accorded 
only  to  the  low  state  of  society  which  it  implies,  the 
dignified  and  beneficent  admonition  above  quoted,  of 
the  Founder  of  faith,  by  which  he  asserts,  in  behalf 
of  the  female  sex,  that  equality  of  consideration  to 
which,  upon  every  principle  of  reason,  humanity,  and 
reciprocity  of  affection,  they  are  so  obviously  entitled. 
Of  the  enactments  of  the  Jewish  law  respecting 
the  treatment  of  slaves,  it  may  be  briefly  observed, 
that  all  of  them  are  such  as,  whilst  they  appear  to  a 
certain  degree  to  tolerate  a  necessary  evil,  in  fact  hold 
out  the  strongest  obstacle  to  its  general  prevalence, 
and  mitigate,  in  a  great  variety  of  ways,  the  cruelty 
and  abuses  which  are  too  apt  to  accompany  the  pos- 
session of  this  species  of  authority.  The  necessary 
manumission  of  all  slaves  of  Jewish  origin  at  the 
return  of  the  year  of  jubilee,  by  diminishing  their 
commercial  value,  must  have  operated  as  a  strong 
discouragement  to  the  system  of  slavery  in  general; 
whilst  even  during  the  continuance  of  their  servitude, 
the  infliction  upon  them  of  even  a  slight  bodily  injury 
by  their  owners  gave  them  a  title  to  the  recovery  of 
their  liberty.  "If  a  man  smite  the  eye  of  his  ser- 
vant, or  the  eye  of  his  maid,  that  it  perish,  he  shall 
let  him  go  free  for  his  eye's  sake :  and  if  he  smite  out 
his  man-servant's  tooth,  or  his  maid-servant's  tooth, 
he  shall  let  him  go  free  for  his  tooth's  sake."*  Even 
in  our  own  days  the  existence  of  such  a  law  as  this 
now  quoted,  would  not  probably  be  amiss  in  those 

Eortions  of  the  globe,  which,  by  an  unfortunate  com- 
ination  of  causes,  are  destined  to  witness  a  continu- 
ance of  a  system  of  compulsory  servitude,  even 
under  the  profession  of  the  equalizing  and  beneficent 
principles  of  Christianity.  The  following  regulation, 
extracted  from  the  book  of  Deuteronomy,  affords 
another  proof  that  it  was  from  no  friendly  feeling 

•  Exodus  xxl  26,  27. 


I 


142 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


towards  the  usage  of  slavery  that  the  toleration  of  it 
was  acknowledged  by  the  Mosaic  institutions.  *'  Thou 
shalt  not  deliver  unto  his  master  the  servant  which  is 
escaped  from  his  master  unto  thee.  He  shall  dwell 
with  thee,  even  among  you,  in  that  place  which  he 
shall  choose  in  one  of  thy  gales,  where  it  liketh  him 
best:  thou  shalt  not  oppress  him."* 

The  trial  of  female  chastity,  by  the  test  of  the 
water  of  jealousy,  as  prescribed  in  Numb.  v.  11,  &c. 
has  been  frequently  compared  to  the  custom  of  the 
ordeal,  as  practised  by  our  Saxon  ancestors,  and,  of 
course,  the  inference  aimed  at  by  the  impugners  of 
revelation  has  been,  that  the  former  usage,  like  the 
latter,  is  a  proof  of  the  ignorance  and  barbarous 
superstition  of  the  age  which  admitted  it  into  its 
legislative  code.  The  cases,  are,  however,  widely 
different.  The  expectation  of  a  continued  miraculous 
interference  in  our  own  days,  so  often  as  we  might, 
in  our  arrogance,  challenge  Heaven  for  the  purpose, 
would,  indeed,  denote  either  the  darkest  intellectual 
blindness,  or  the  grossest  presumption  ;  but  it  would 
be  perfectly  rational  and  consistent  under  the  theo- 
cracy which  constituted  the  civil  polity  of  the  Jews. 
There  could  be  no  arrogance  in  looking  for  the  special 
interposition  of  the  Deity  in  cases  where  he  himself 
had  solemnly  promised  it ;  but  there  might  be  want 
of  faith,  and  consequently  sin,  in  abstaining  from  a 
usa^e  thus  solemnly  instituted.  It  has  also  been 
well  observed,  as  an  important  distinction  between 
the  two  instances  in  question,  that  whereas,  accord- 
ing to  the  usage  of  the  ordeal,  a  miracle  was  required 
for  the  acquittal  of  the  accused  party;  under  the 
Levitical  rule,  on  the  contrary,  a  miracle  was  neces- 
sary for  the  purpose  of  condemnation.  In  the  former 
case,  the  failure  of  the  experiment  involved  the 
punishment  of  the  innocent;  in  the  latter  it  could 
possibly  lead  only,  at  the  very  worst,  to  the  acquittal 
of  the  guilty. 

*  Deut,  zxiii.  15. 


WITH   HUMAN  REASON. 


143 


With  regard  to  the  last  mentioned  of  the  foregoing 
objections,  namelv,  the  occasionally  very  severe  ex- 
ertion of  parental  authority,  even  to  the  extent  of 
taking  away  life,  as  sanctioned  by  the  law  of  Moses,* 
it  cannot  be  better  met  than  by  extracting,  in  this 
place,  the  words  of  Bishop  Watson,  as  given  in  his 
celebrated  Apology  for  the  Bible.  "  You  think  '  that 
law  in  Deuteronomy  inhuman  and  brutal,  which 
authorizes  parents,  the  father  and  mother,  to  bring 
their  own  children  to  have  them  stoned  to  death,  for 
what  it  is  pleased  to  call  stubbornness.' — You  are 
aware,  I  suppose,  that  paternal  power  amongst  the 
Romans,  the  Gauls,  the  Persians,  and  other  nations, 
was  of  the  most  arbitrary  kind :  that  it  extended  to 
the  taking  away  the  life  of  the  child.  I  do  not  know 
whether  the  Israelites,  in  the  time  of  Moses,  exercised 
this  paternal  power :  it  was  not  a  custom  adopted  by 
all  nations,  but  it  was  by  many;  and  in  the  infancy 
of  society,  before  individual  families  had  coalesced 
into  communities,  it  was,  probably,  very  general. 
Now  Moses,  by  this  law,  which  you  esteem  brutal 
and  inhuman,  hindered  such  an  extravagant  power 
from  being  either  introduced  or  exercised  amongst 
the  Israelites.  This  law  is  so  far  from  countenancing 
the  arbitrary  power  of  a  father  over  the  life  of  his 
child,  that  it  takes  from  him  the  power  of  accusing 
the  child  before  a  magistrate. — The  father  and  the 
mother  of  the  child  must  agree  in  bringing  the  child 
to  judgment,  and  it  is  not  by  their  united  will  that 
the  child  was  to  be  condemned  to  death  :  the  elders 
of  the  city  were  to  judge  whether  the  accusation  was 
true ;  and  the  accusation  was  to  be  not  merely,  as 
you  insinuate,  that  the  child  was  stubborn,  but  that 
he  was  *  stubborn  and  rebellious,  a  glutton,  and  a 
drunkard.'  Considered  in  this  light,  you  must  allow 
the  law  to  have  been  a  humane  restriction  of  a  power 
improper  to  be  lodged  with  any  parent," 

•  Deut.  xxi.  18,  &c. 


/  ♦ 


I 


144 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Of  the  Evidence  afforded  to  the  authenticity  of  the  Levitical  Insti' 
tutions,  by  the  onerous  Nature  of  its  Jiitual,  and  the  present 
State  of  the  Jewish  People. 

• 

The  whole  series  of  the  Jewish  records,  then,  if 
attempted  to  be  accounted  for  by  merely  natural 
causes,  presents  a  tissue  of  difficulties  which  it  would 
be  quite  impossible  to  explain.  The  miracles,  the 
history  of  which  constitutes  so  large  a  portion  of  their 
subject  matter,  unlike  those  false  prodigies,  which 
usually  crowd  the  annals  of  dark  and  superstitious 
periods,  as  has  been  already  observed,  so  far  from 
bearing  the  appearance  of  a  gratuitous  super-addition 
to  common-place  event,  are  absolutely  necessary,  as 
fundamental  facts,  to  give  consistence  and  probability 
to  the  whole  narrative.  The  difficulty  cannot  be  got 
over  by  supposing  the  documents  in  question  to  be  a 
partial,  much  less  an  entire,  forgery.  The  former 
hypothesis  does  not  meet  the  case,  the  latter  presents 
an  absolute  impossibility.  It  is  contrary  to  all  ex- 
perience, as  it  would  be  contrary  to  all  reason,  that 
any  considerable  and  ancient  nation  should  exist,  the 
whole  of  whose  written  annals  should  be  false;  and 
yet,  in  the  case  of  the  Jews,  to  stop  short  at  the  par- 
tial admission  of  the  authenticity  of  their  recorded 
transactions,  to  the  exclusion  of  any  preternatural 
agency  in  their  production,  would  drive  us  into  the 
admission  of  positions  not  one  degree  more  tenable. 
The  fact  of  the  real  occurrence  of  miracles,  however, 
once  granted,  there  appears  no  reason  why  we  should 
attempt  to  set  other  limits  to  their  extent  than  those 
which  the  Scriptures  expressly  assign  to  them. 
That  this  portion  of  history  contains  the  records  of  a 
nation  very  far  from  advanced  in  civilization  is. 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


145 


indeed,  obvious,  from  the  slightest  perusal.  But,  as 
has  been  already  remarked,  this  circumstance  only 
adds  to  our  admiration  of  the  awfully  solemn  theisti- 
cal  doctrines  and  the  spirit  of  pure  and  benevolent 
humanity  which  pervades  so  large  a  portion  of  it. 
The  exceptions  to  this  indulgent  spirit,  where  they 
occur,  have,  indeed,  been  admitted  to  be  striking;  but 
these  very  exceptions,  as  being  directed,  almost  ex- 
clusively, against  the  abominations  of  idolatry,  which 
nothing  short  of  absolute  extermination  could  have 
prevented  from  rendering  the  whole  of  these  admira- 
ble enactments  abortive,  are  themselves  a  strong 
internal  evidence  of  the  wisdom  in  which  thev 
were  conceived,  and  of  the  high  source  from  which 
they  emanate.  Admit  the  Mosaic  law  really  to  have 
been  what  it  professes  to  be,  and  we  see,  at  once, 
the  absolute  necessity  of  these  seemingly  harsh  pro- 
visions ;  consider  it  to  be  the  work  of  a  mere  human 
legislator,  and  we  are  at  a  loss  to  trace  in  them  any 
purposes  of  policy,  or  any  features  of  consistency. 
Bishop  Warburton  is  of  opinion,  that  the  single  fact 
of  the  silence  of  Moses,  with  regard  to  a  future  life 
of  rewards  or  punishments,  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  his 
Divine  legation.  We  may  restate  this  argument 
more  palpably  and  broadly  by  asserting  that  no  legis- 
lator could,  with  the  slightest  chance  of  success, 
assert  the  bold  theory  of  a  theocracy  extending  its 
direct  superintending  care  to  the  minutest  circum- 
stances of  domestic  life,  and  promising  a  special 
miracle  for  almost  every  deviation  from  the  law  of 
strict  obedience,  were  not  that  assertion  borne  out  by 
fact.  Not  only,  however,  does  Moses  repeatedly 
hazard  this  assertion,  but  he  appeals,  again  and  again, 
to  the  positive  experience  of  his  people  for  the  proof 
of  the  reality  of  the  miracles  which  he  narrates.  We 
cannot  meet  this  argument,  and  thus  get  rid  of  the 
difficulty,  by  supposing  that  the  books  which  bear  his 
name  were  the  production  of  a  later  period.  Such  an 
hypothesis  has  already  been  shown  to  be  improbable 

13 


» 


146 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


in  the  highest  degree  ;  and  even  if  granted,  it  would 
create  more  perplexily  than  it  would  remove.     The 
later  books  of  the  Old  Testament  not  only  pre-suppose 
the  existence  of  the  writings  of  Moses,  such  as  they 
have  descended  to  our  times,  but  they  also,  in  their 
turn,  bear  witness  to  other  and  subsequent  miracles, 
for  the  truth  of  which  they  make  their  own  appeal 
to  the  testimony  of  contemporary  witnesses.     To 
suppose  these  last  mentioned  compositions,  again,  to 
be  forgeries,  is  still  rushing  deeper  and  deeper  into 
impossibilities,  for  the  sake  of  avoiding  the  one  pri- 
mary admission  which  explains  the  whole,  namely, 
the  Divine  origin  of  the  Christian,  and  consequently 
of  the  Levitical  dispensation.     It  has  been  well  ob- 
served, that  the  annual  celebration  of  stated  festivals 
and  solemnities  by  any  people  is  amongst  the  surest 
guarantee  which  can  possibly  be  given  to  later  times 
of  the  authenticity  of  the  received  traditions  of  their 
early  ancestry.      Such  institutions  are,  in   fact,  a 
periodical  reenactment  of  the  most  influential  events 
in  the  history  of  nations;  and  from  the  actual  identity 
of  ceremonial  which,  for  the  most  part,  accompanies 
their  repetition,  they  bring  the  usages  of  long  extin- 
guished  ages  more  immediately,  and  more  correctly, 
before  the  eye  than  any  other  human  contrivance 
with   which   we   are   acquainted.      But  the   whole 
political  history  of  the  Jews  was  that  of  the  regular 
recurrence  of  religious  festivals,  all  illustrating  and 
confirming  each  other,  but  each  also  having  its  owq 
respective  and   peculiar  object  of  commemoration. 
Many  of  them  also,  it  should  be  observed,  were  of  an 
extremely  onerous  and  costly  character,  such  as  no 
people  would  willingly  adopt,  for  a  long  succession 
of   ages,   without  some   strong  assignable  reason, 
whilst  some  of  their  habitual  institutions  seemed 
almost  to  militate  against  their  very  existence  as  an 
independent  people.     Of  the  former  kind  was  th^ 
necessity  imposed  upon  all  persons  adopting  the 
Mosaic  ritual  of  repairing  to  Jerusalem  annually,  at 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


147 


1 


the  season  of  the  great  festivals  :  as  instances  of  the 
latter,  may  be  mentioned  the  observance  of  the 
sabbatical  year,  which,  from  the  remission  of  taxes, 
stated  by  Josephus  to  have  been  granted  to  the  Jews, 
on  that  account,  by  Alexander,  appears,  if  we  are  to 
give  credit  to  that  historian,  to  have  been,  in  some 
degree,  maintained  so  late  as  the  time  of  that 
monarch  ;*  and  the  almost  superstitious  observance 
of  the  weekly  Sabbath,  of  which  Pompeyand  others, 
during  the  several  sieges  of  Jerusalem,  are  said  to 
have  taken  such  pernicious  advantage,  for  the  purpose 
of  urging  their  attacks. 

Now  surely,  if  we  find  a  particular  people,  week 
after  week,  year  after  year,  and  period  after  period, 
with  uniformity  and  precision,  as  well  as  with  great 
personal  cost  and  inconvenience,  repeating  again  and 
again  the  same  routine  of  social  and  religious  cere- 
monies, it  would  seem  as  certain  as  certainty  can 
make  it,  that  some  events  must  really  have  occurred, 
in  the  early  history  of  that  nation,  which  rendered 
such  usages  imperative  upon  their  ancestors.  No 
assignable  reason  can  be  suggested  why  the  later 
Jews  should  be  found  annually  celebrating  their  Pass- 
over, their  Pentecost,  their  feast  of  Tabernacles, 
excepting  the  obvious  one,  that  the  recurrence  of  the 
stated  season,  in  each  successive  year,  brought  with 
it  the  recollection  of  the  important  events  to  which 

•  It  must  be  confessed,  that  the  observance  of  the  sabbatical  year  seems 
never  to  have  been  very  rigidly  adhered  to  by  the  Jews ;  probably,  because 
of  all  the  Mosaic  institutions  it  was  the  one  which  required  the  largest 
degree  of  faith  in  the  special  protection  of  Providence,  and  which  mili- 
tated most  against  the  natural  principle  of  covetousness.  It  should  be 
rememl)eretl,  however,  that  the  disobeaience  ofthe  nation  on  this  jx>i«t  was 
expre^ly  foretold,  and  a  future  judgment  denounced  against  them,  on  that 
account,  by  Moseshimself ;  (Leviticus  xxvi.  34,  35.)  and  that  this  specific 
reason  is  assigned  (2  Chronicles  xxvi.  21.)  for  the  infliction  upon  them  of 
the  Babylonish  captivity.  The  force  of  the  argument  contained  in  the 
observation  to  which  this  note  is  appended  is  not,  however,  atTected  by 
this  admission.  The  Jews,  at  all  events,  acknowledged  their  conscientious 
obligation  to  the  observance  of  the  sabbatical  year  as  a  Divine  institu- 
tion, which  they  certainly  would  not  have  done,  had  they  not  been  con- 
vinced, in  spite  of  their  own  wishes  and  apparent  interests  to  the  contrary, 
that  such  was  reaHy  its  character. 


148 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


those  institutions  respectively  referred,  and  to  which 
they  might  be  continuously  traced  back.      The  same 
course  of  argument,  as  demonstrative  of  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  Mosaic  narrative,  will  apply,  if  possible, 
with  still  greater  force  to  the  great  standing  miracle 
of  the  present  condition  of  the  Jews,  as  we  find  them 
scattered  through  almost  every  habitable  portion  of 
the  globe.     Striking  effects  must  have  had  adequate 
cause.     What,  then,  was  the  cause  which  placed,  and 
retains,  that  singular  people  in  their  present  peculiar 
and  unparalleled  circumstances  ?     By  what  theory, 
if  we  discard  that  of  a  special  Divine  agency,  and  of 
that  obstinate  tenacity  of  political  life,  produced  by 
the  exclusive  character  of  their  traditional  usages,  are 
we  to  explain  a  fact  so  completely  at  variance  with 
all  our  experience  derived  from  other  quarters  ?   The 
name  and  traceable  lineage  of  every  other  ancient 
nation,  with  whose  history  we  are  acquainted,  and, 
amongst    the   rest,   of  the   ten  heretical   Israelitish 
tribes  themselves,  have  disappeared  from  the  research 
of  the  antiquarian,  at  no  long  period  after  they  have 
ceased  to  exist  as  a  separate  body  politic.     And  yet, 
of  the  dynasties  and  nations  which   at  the  present 
moment  advance  their  claim  to  the  highest  antiquity, 
not  one  was  in  political  existence  at  the  time  of  the 
extinction  of  the  Jews  as  a  constituted  people.     The 
Byzantine  empire  dated  its  birth  nearly  three  hun- 
dred years  after  that  period,  and  yet  it  is  now  nearly 
four  hundred  years  since  it  has  perished,  with  its  long 
line  of  emperors,  by  the  natural  process  of  decay. 
The  most  ancient  monarchy  of  Europe,  that  of  France, 
had  its  origin  more  than  four  hundred   years  sub- 
sequent to  the  same  epoch  ;  and  if  we  look  elsewhere 
to  the  surrounding  states,  we  find  a  similar  spirit  of 
change  giving  a  new  form,  at  different  and  successive 
intervals,  to  the  language,  habits,  religion,  and  col- 
lective character  of  every  portion  of  the  civilized  world. 
It  is  no  answer  to  this  remarkable  peculiarity  attach- 
ing to  the  Jews  to  assert  that  they  owe  their  extra^ 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


149 


ordinary  vitality,  as  a  people,  to  natural  causes. 
Those  causes,  if^they  mean  any  thing,  must  be  their 
religion  and  social  institutions.  But  whence  did 
institutions  possessing  this  remarkable  property  of 
making  the  actual  decay  of  one  nation  more  pro- 
tracted than  the  whole  date  of  the  existence  of  any 
other,  derive  their  source  ?  Still  we  must  revert  to 
the  same,  and  the  only  satisfactory  solution.  Second- 
ary causes  have  been  more  specially  directed  in  their 
instance,  and  throughout  the  whole  of  their  history, 
to  the  promotion  of  some  remarkable  result,  than  in 
that  of  any  other  branch  of  the  human  race.  If  it  be 
asked,  why  has  this  been  so,  the  Christian  stands  in 
no  need  of  an  explanation.  On  the  contrary,  he 
sees  in  this  fact  only  one  link  the  more  in  the  chain 
of  consistent  events ;  another  proof  of  the  Divine 
superintendence,  manifesting  itself,  as  in  the  earlier 
ages  of  the  world  so  in  the  present,  in  confirmation 
of  the  religion  which  he  acknowledges.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  sceptic  must  add  this  to  the  already  over- 
charged list  of  diflficulties  with  which  his  cold  and 
hopeless  theory  is  encumbered,  and  which  (as  to  us 
it  would  seem  so  inconsequentially)  he  adopts,  rather 
than  submit  to  acknowledge  that  the  sublimest  spe- 
cimen of  religious  philosophy  and  of  social  ethics 
which  the  history  of  human  knowledge  records  could 
possibly  be,  under  any  circumstances,  the  direct  gift 
of  the  Creator  to  his  creatures.* 

"The  preat  Cond^  is  said  lo  have  replied  to  certain  infidel  arguments, 
that  it  was  perfecily  vain  to  assail  the  credibility  of  the  Christian  revela- 
tion, so  lon«4  as  so  singular  a  miracle  as  that  of  the  existing  state  of  the 
Jewish  |)eople  could  be  appealed  to  in  its  puppt)rt.  The  additional  laps© 
of  a  century  and  a  half  since  the  death  of  that  eminent  person  has  assuredly 
joot  rendered  the  miracle  to  which  he  alluded  less  convincing. 


I 


II 


13' 


^'1 


} 


150 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

Of  the  tendency  of  the  prophetic  Books  of  the  Old  Testament, 

The  object  of  this  dissertation  being  chiefly  to  point 
out  the  general  congruity  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  with 
themselves,  and  with  the  universally  acknowledged 
phenomena  of  human  nature,  in  other  words,  to  dwell 
more  immediately  upon  the  internal  evidence  which 
they  bear  of  their  own  authenticity,  it  will  scarcely 
fall  within  its  design  to  dwell  upon  the  very  strong 
confirmation  afforded  by  prophecy  to  the  truth  of 
Christianity.  In  a  work  so  limited  in  compass  as  the 
present,  it  were  impossible  to  do  justice  to  so  extensive 
a  subject,  and  which  has  already  been  cogently  illus- 
trated in  many  first-rate  standard  works:*  nor  would 
the  minute  and  circumstantial  detail,  which  such  an 
examination  would  require,  accord  with  the  very 
general  view  of  the  more  superficial  and  popular 
objections  to  the  credibility  of  our  religion,  which  is 
all  that  is  now  attempted  to  be  taken.  With  regard, 
therefore,  to  this  truly  important  branch  of  the  Chris- 
tian  evidences,  it  will  be  our  object  to  dwell  chiefly 
upon  the  more  broad  and  general  character  of  the 
writings  of  the  Jewish  prophets,  as  forming  a  kind 
of  intermediate  dispensation  between  the  Levitical 
institutions,  the  strict  and  formal  letter  of  which  they 
are  calculated  to  spiritualize,  and  the  covenant  of  the 
Gospel,  of  the  real  nature  and  destination  of  which 
they  gave  the  first  clear  intimations. 

Now,  among  the  foremost  impressions  left  upon 
our  minds  by  their  perusal,  is  that  of  the  internal 

*  Few  more  eatisfaclory  worka,  in  confirmation  of  the  inspiration  of 
Scripture,  have  appeared  within  our  own  time,  than  that  of  the  Rer. 
Alexander  Keith,  entitled  "Evidence  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  Religion, 
derived  from  the  literal  fultilnient  of  prophecy."  We  know  of  no  work 
of  the  same  length  so  well  adapted  to  direct  the  aitention  of  Bcepiical 
minds  to  the  serious  investigate  /n  of  that  subject. 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


151 


proof  which  they  bear  of  their  own  authenticity,  from 
the  total  want  of  system  and  definite  purpose  which 
they  display,  and  the  entire  absence  of  any  personal 
interest  or  advantage  to  their  respective  authors,  if 
we  put  out  of  the  question  the  appropriate  position 
which  they  are  calculated  to  occupy  between  a  reli- 
gion of  types  and  one  of  antitypes,  between  one  of 
ritual  expiations  and  one  of  spiritual  holiness ;  and 
the  strong  testimony  which  they  thus  afford  retro- 
Bpectively  to  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic,  and  prospec- 
tively to  that  of  the  Christian  covenant.  It  would 
most  assuredly  be  impossible  to  account  for  the  com- 
position of  the  larger  and  more  prominent  proportion 
of  these  truly  remarkable  documents,  by  referring  it 
to  the  ordinary  human  motives  of  self-interest,  or  of 
national  or  personal  vanity.  That  they  were  not 
written  for  the  purpose  of  giving  an  additional  sanc- 
tion to  the  Levitical  institutions  is  obvious  from  the 
fact,  that  they  frequently  speak  of  them  in  language 
so  depreciating,  as  almost  to  imply  a  spirit  of  hos- 
tility :  whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  that  their  object 
was  not  that  of  casting  any  slur  upon  the  authenticity 
of  that  ritual  is  equally  evident,  from  the  fact  that 
they  explicitly  assert  its  Divine  origin,  and  attribute 
the  severe  visitations  which  befel  their  countrymen 
to  the  wrath  of  Providence,  for  their  continued  viola- 
tion of  its  enactments.  Now,  admitting  that  the 
Jewish  prophets  were  sent  into  the  world  at  their 
respective  epochs,  for  the  purpose  of  weaning  the 
public  mind  gradually  from  the  provisional  establish- 
ment of  Moses,  and  preparing  it  for  the  reception  of 
evangelical  truth,  all  these  characteristics  which  mark 
their  writings  are  precisely  what  might  have  been 
expected :  but,  we  repeat,  no  other  solution  with 
which  we  are  acquainted  would  meet  the  case.  Any 
idea  of  personal  aggrandizement,  as  the  motive  of  the 
line  adopted  by  their  authors,  was  again  obviously 
out  of  the  question.  To  the  Jewish  community  they 
must  have  appeared,  from  their  continued  anticipa- 


.«. 


152 


CONSISTENCY   OF  REVELATION 


I 


tions  of  national  calamity  and  discomfiture,  any  thintr 
rather  than  patriotic ;    and  by  the  uncompromising 
censure  with  which  they  lashed  the  vices  of  the  sove^ 
reigns  of  the  day,  they  must  have  expected  to  draw 
down,  as  we  know  that  they  actually  did,  the  most 
violent  persecution  upon  their  own  heads.     Yet  with 
all  these  apparently  unpopular  characteristics,  their 
books  (such  we  must  presume  was  the  unanswerable 
evidence  of  their  inspiration  at  the  time  of  their  pro- 
duction) have  been  received  as  infallible  oracles  by 
the  very  people  whose  crimes  they  denounced,  whose 
religious  prejudices  they  oflended,  and  whose  political 
rum  they  foreboded ;  and,  from  that  day  to  the  pre- 
sent, have  been  reverentially  transmitted  from  father 
to  son,  through  every  change  of  evil  and  good  fortune 
and   referred  to  in  their  original  language  by   that 
inflexible  people  under  almost  every  possible  modifi- 
cation of  manners,  and  in  almost  every  climate  of  the 
earth. 

The  gradual  preparation  for  a  new  and  better 
system  than  that  of  the  provisional  institutions  of 
Moses,  as  hinted  at  by  himself,  and  slowly  developed 
in  the  subsequent  writings  of  the  prophets,  seems  to 
fiave  been  admirably  contrived  by  Providence,  accord- 
ing to  the  continually  shifting  circumstances  of  the 
Jewish  people.  Moses,  it  has  been  already  remarked, 
alludes  to  the  eventual  abrogation  of  his  own  ritual 
by  the  substitution  of  the  covenant  of  the  Gospel  in 
language  sufficiently  precise  to  satisfy  us  that  he  was 
lully  aware  that  such  would  be  the  fact,  though  in  a 
manner  not  so  prominent  as  to  derogate  from  the 
veneration  claimed  for  his  own  enactments,  bv  an- 
nouncing more  boldly  than  was  expedient  their  real 
character.  But  as  time  advanced,  and  when  after 
a  course  of  successive  ages  the  Levitical  rites  had 
been  sufficiently  long  established  to  have  completely 
identified  themselves  with  the  national  habits,  the 
Almighty  appears  purposely  to  have  become  more  and 
more  explicit  m  his  intimation  of  his  ultimate  purpose. 


\) 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


153 


The  substitution  of  spiritual,  in  the  place  of  ritual, 
holiness ;  the  one  efficient  expiation  of  sin,  destined 
to  be  once  for  all  offered  and  completed  in  the  suffer- 
ings and  subsequent  glorifying  of  the  Messiah,  and 
the  communication  of  the  blessings  of  the  Gospel  to 
the  Gentiles  equally  with  the  Jews,  are  expressly 
alluded  to  so  early  as  the  time  of  David,  in  many  of 
the  Psalms  attributed  to  that  monarch  and  his  con- 
temporaries, in  a  manner  obviously  calculated  to 
subtract  from  the  then  existing  reliance  upon  the 
efficacy  of  the  sacerdotal  sacrifice.  "  I  will  not  reprove 
thee,"  are  the  words  of  the  50th  Psalm,  "for  thy  sacri- 
fices, or  thy  burnt-offerings,  have  been  continually 
before  me.  I  will  take  no  bullock  out  of  thy  house, 
nor  he-goat  out  of  thy  folds ;  for  every  beast  of  the 
forest  is  mine,  and  the  cattle  upon  a  thousand  hills. 
I  know  all  the  fowls  upon  the  mountains,  and  the 
wild  beasts  of  the  fields  are  mine.  If  I  were  hungry 
I  would  not  tell  thee  ;  for  the  world  is  mine,  and  the 
fulness  thereof.  Will  I  eat  the  flesh  of  bulls,  or  drink 
the  blood  of  goats  ?*  Offer  unto  God  thanksgivingy 
and  pay  thy  vows  unto  the  Most  High^  and  call  upon  me 
in  the  day  of  trouble :  I  will  deliver  thee  and  thou  shall 
glorify  we."  Again  we  read  in  the  40th  Psalm, 
Sacrifice  and  offering  thou  didst  not  desire :  mine  ears 
hast  thou  opened :  burnt-offering  and  sin-offering  hast 
thou  not  required.  Then  said  7,  lo  I  come :  in  the  vol- 
ume of  the  book  it  is  written  of  me,  /  delight  to  do  thy 

*  The  words  of  Isaiah  are  exactly  to  the  pame  purport.  "  To  what  pur- 
pose ia  the  multiiiule  of  your  sacrifices  unto  me  7  saith  the  Lord  ;  I  am 
full  of  the  burnt-otferirigs  of  rams,  and  the  fat  of  fed  beasts  ;  and  I  delight 
not  in  the  blood  of  bullocks,  or  of  lambs,  or  of  goats.  When  ye  come  to 
appear  before  me,  who  hath  required  this  at  your  hand,  to  tread  my 
courts?  Bring  no  more  vain  oblations;  incense  is  an  abomination  unto 
me;  the  new  moons  and  sabbaths,  the  calling  of  asaemblies,  I  cannot 
away  with  :  it  ia  iniquity,  even  the  solemn  meeting.  Your  new  moons 
and  your  appointed  leasts  my  soul  hatelh  :  they  are  a  trouble  unto  me  ; 
J  am  weary  to  bear  them.  And  when  ye  spread  forth  your  haiids,  I  will 
hide  mine  eyes  from  you ;  yea,  when  ye  make  many  prayers,  I  will  not 
hear :  your  hands  are  full  of  blood.  Wash  you,  make  you  clean,  put 
away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  mine  eyes  :  cease  to  do  evil, 
learn  to  do  well ;  seek  judgment ;  relieve  the  oppressed  :  judge  the  father* 
}oK,  plead  for  the  widow."— /saia/i  i.  11.  et.  se^. 


it  J 


154 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


will,  O  my  God,  yea  thy  law  is  within  my  hearth     The 
22d  Psalm  contains  so  minute  a  detail  of  some  of  the 
circumstances  attending  our  blessed  Saviour's  cruci- 
fixion as  to  have  the  appearance  rather  of  the  clear 
narrative  of  subsequent  history,  than  the  mysterious 
allusive  hints  of  prophecy ;  whilst  in  the  latter  part 
of  that  singular  composition,  the  eventual  extension 
of  the  benefits  of  the  Redeemer's  expiatory  atonement 
to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  is  expressly  asserted. 
"All  the  ends  of  the  world  shall  remember  and  turn 
unto  the  Lord,  and  all   the  kindreds  of  the  nations 
shall  worship  before  Thee.     For  the  kingdom  is  the 
Lord's,  and  he  is  the  Governor  among  the  nations. 
All  they  that  be  fat  upon  earth  (all  the  potentates  of 
the  earth)  shall  eat  and  worship  :    all  they  that  go 
down  to  the  dust  shall  bow  before  him  :  and  none  can 
keep  alive  his  own  soul."     In  proportion  as  the  com- 
pletion of  the  time  contemplated  bv  Providence  drew 
nearer,  this  tendency  to  derogate  from  the  effective- 
ness of  their  existing  ritual,  and  to  anticipate  a  more 
perfect  system  still  hidden  in  the  womb  of  futurity, 
becomes  more  and  more  evident  in  the  writings  of 
the  iater  prophets.     And,  accordingly,  we  know  that 
in  consequence  of  these  repeated  allusions,  all  bearing 
prospectively  to  the  same  point,  and  more  especially 
of  those  contained  in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  the  appear- 
ance of  a  Prince  and  Saviour  was  an  object  of  earnest 
expectation  among   the   Jews   at   the   time   of  our 
Redeemer's  birth;  though  from  feelings  of  nationality 
they  were  disposed,  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  very 
prophecies   to   which  they  referred,  to  restrict   the 
object  of  his  mission  to  their  own  peculiar  nation.. 
Now  it  cannot  be  denied  that,  upon  the  presumption 
that  the   intentions   of  Providence  were   what   the 
Christian  supposes,  this  gradual  repeal  of  the  earlier 
covenant,  and  preparation  of  the  human  mind  for  the 
promulgation  of  that  which  was  to  displace  it,  was 
wisely  contrived.     The  system  pursued  was  like  that 
which  we  witness  in  some  of  the  common  operations 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


I 


155 


of  physical  nature,  where  the  effete  animal  organ, 
which  IS  to  be  superseded  by  the  substitution  of  one 
more  complete,  detaches  itself  slowly  and  almost 
imperceptibly,  and  finally  drops  off  when  the  process 
lor  the  production  of  that  which  is  to  follow  is  com- 
pleted. Another,  and  no  trifling  advantage,  also,  was 
obtained  for  the  eventual  advancement  of  Christianity 
by  this  peculiar  arrangement;  namely,  the  confirma- 
tion of  its  authenticity  subsequently  to  its  promulo-a- 
tion,  by  the  evidence  of  previously  received  prophecy. 
The  same  writings  which,  before  the  proclamation  of 
the  Gospel  covenant,  seem  to  have  been  intended  only 
for  the  single  purpose  of  weaning  the  minds  of  the 
Jews  from  a  too  strong  attachment  to  the  mere  cere- 
monial of  their  law,  and  of  inculcating  principles  of 
more  substantial  holiness,  served,  after  the  coming  of 
Christ,  to  afford  the  most  irrefragable  proofs  of  the 
reality  of  his  mission.  In  consequence  of  this  double 
purpose,  which  has  been  answered  by  the  prophetic 
writings,  it  is  that  their  importance,  as  means  of 
instruction,  is  at  this  moment  as  great  to  the  society 
of  Christians  as  it  was  originally  to  the  people  for 
whose  use  they  appeared  ^to  be  more  immediately 
intended:  a  circumstance  in  which  we  trace  again 
another  close  analogy  with  the  general  economy  of 
the  Creator,  almost  all  of  whose  visible  works  are 
adapted  for  the  promotion  of  other  and  secondary 
purposes,  after  the  first  and  more  ostensible  object  has 
been  attained. 

Without,  then,  carrying  this  part  of  our  argument 
further  than  the  foregoing  observations,  and  leaving 
the  detailed  examination  of  the  actual  fulfilment  of 
prophecy,  with  the  unanswerable  evidence  which  it 
affords  in  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  our  religion,  to 
the  admirable  works  which  have  already  been  written 
on  that  subject,  it  will  only  be  remarked,  in  this 
place,  with  regard  to  this  portion  of  the  Old  Testa- 
rnent,  as  has  already  been  done  with  respect  to  the 
historical  books,  that  every  possible  theory  which  we 


M 


156 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


can  suggest  as  the  motive  of  their  production,  saving 
and  excepting  that  which  presupposes  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  and  the  consequent  real  reference  of  these 
writings  to  that  coming  dispensation,  is  full  of  incon- 
gruities and  inconsistencies.  Why,  in  the  very  com- 
mencement of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  a  distinct  hint 
should  have  been  given,  that  a  descendant  from  the 
first  stock  of  the  human  lineage  should  one  day  prove 
a  means  of  a  reconciliation  of  man  with  his  Maker  ; 
why  a  repetition  of  the  same  promise,  but  in  still 
more  explicit  language,  should  have  been  recorded  as 
having  been  made  to  Abraham  and  his  immediate 
descendants ;  why  Moses,  in  giving  a  law  to  his 
people,  which  at  the  first  aspect  seemed  destined  for 
perpetuity,  and  which  was  made  imperative  upon  the 
whole  lineage  of  Israel,  under  the  most  fearful  sanc- 
tions, should  have  distinctly,  though  incidentally, 
asserted  that  it  was  eventually  to  be  cancelled  by  one 
vested  with  still  higher  authority ;  why,  as  time  pro- 
ceeded, subsequent  presumed  inspired  writers  should 
agree  in  depreciating  that  very  law,  the  Divine 
authority  of  which  they  confidently  asserted,  and 
finally  snould  almost  explicitly,  and  without  disguise 
or  figure,  announce  the  approach  of  a  higher  legislator, 
who  was  to  supersede  all  existing  institutions,  and 
break  down  the  partition  wall  between  Jew  and  Gen- 
tile ;  why  those  books  should  have  been  received  as 
inspired  documents  by  the  very  people  whose  sins 
they  denounced,  and  wnose  ruin  they  anticipated,  and 
why,  as  we  know  historically  to  have  been  the  fact, 
the  expectation  of  the  whole  Jewish  nation  should 
have  been  eagerly  looking  for  the  promised  Messiah 
at  the  very  period  of  Christ^s  appearance  in  the  human 
form  ;  why  all  this  chain  of  connected  circumstances 
should  have  existed,  if  there  was  really  no  connecting 
principle  in  the  actual  state  of  things  to  produce  it, 
and  no  concert  or  combination  in  the  respective 
parties,  it  would  seem  perfectly  impossible  to  explain. 
If  one  main  idea,  not  brought  ambitiously  and  pro- 


5 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


157 


minently  forward,  but  couched  often  in  allegorical 
allusions,  often  in  casual  expressions,  and  in  language 
which  until  its  fulfilment  must  often  have  been  abso- 
lutely inexplicable,  be  really  traceable  from  first  to 
last,  from  almost  the  first  page  of  the  first  Book  of 
Moses,  down  to  the  conclusion  of  Malachi :  if  with 
this  single  key  to  decipher  each  respective  composi- 
tion,  all   separately  become  unambiguous  in  their 
meaning,  and  collectively  form  one  consistent  whole; 
and  if  without  that  key  each  part  would  be  at  once 
at  variance  with  itself,  and  irreconcilable  with  the 
others,  a  tissue  of  improbable  legends,  and  of  unreal, 
bacause  unnecessary,  miracles  ;  and  if,  in  addition  to 
this,  the  grand  question  of  some  religion,  or  no  reli- 
gion, be  finally  at  stake  in  proportion  as  we  incline 
to  this  side,  or  its  opposite,  we  surely  must  admit 
that  the  combination  of  probabilities  thus  arrived  at 
is  fully  sufficient  to  command  our  assent  to  the  con- 
fessedly astounding  arrangement  of  human  events, 
which  those  documents  agree  in  recording.     It  is  not 
for  a  moment  our  wish  to  deny  or  conceal  what  every 
Christian   must  have   felt,  the   startling  sensation 
which  the  recital  of  such  preternatural  occurrences  as 
those  related  in  the  Scriptures  is  calculated  to  produce 
when  considered  separately  from  the  great  transcen- 
dental scheme  of  which  they  form  the  preparatory 
means.     But  the  cure  for  such  doubts  is  to  be  found 
in  considering  our  religion  as  a  whole  ;  in  examining 
the  extent  and  character  of  our  spiritual  necessities  ; 
in  weighing  one  seeming  contradiction  against  its 
contradictory  opposite  ;  and  in  satisfying  our  minds, 
that  by  the  demonstrable  constitution  of  our  nature, 
no  other  alternative  is  allowed  us  than  that  of  choos- 
ing between  the  lowest  possible  state  of  moral  degra- 
dation, namely,  that  of  complete  irreligion,  and  the 
admission  of  the  necessity  of  some  specific  Dmne 
arrangement,  by  which  the  acknowledged  defects  of 
the  existing  order  of  things  may  be  met  and  rectified. 
If  these,  then,  are  the  necessary  conclusions  to 

14 


«  I 


158 


CONoISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


which  every  earnest  examination  of  our  purest  moral 
tendencies,  and  of  the  phenomena  of  the  creation 
must  ultimately  lead  us,  it  is  obvious  that  to  minds 
thus   prepared  the  seemingly   improbable,  because 
unusual,  interferences  of  the  Creator  with  the  course 
of  his  own  laws,  recorded  in  the  sacred  writings,  lose 
at  once  the  greater  portion  of  their  powers  of  embar- 
rassment.    To  a  Christian  and  a  Sceptic,  accordin^rly 
even  where  the  natural  faculties  of  the  understanding^ 
may  be  granted  to  be  essentially  equal,  the  self-same 
statement  of  facts  upon   these  points  will  lead  to 
directly  opposite  impressions.      The  former,  if  he 
reason  conclusively,  and  with  that  masculine  ^msn 
of  mind  which  neither  seeks  after  unnecessary  para- 
dox,  nor  flinches  from  the  charge  of  credulity  in  com- 
phance  with  the  prejudices  of  the  indolent  and  half- 
informed,  will  carefully  examine,  in  the  first  place 
the  main  and  primary  propositions  of  religion,  and! 
It  he  find  them  established  upon  a  basis  which  it  is 
absolutely  impossible  to  overturn,  will  then  be  content 
to  take  them  with  all  their  consequences  and  accom- 
panying  difficulties,  an;  to  pursue  his  course,  step  by 
step,  from  the  simplest  principles  of  natural  theofotty 
to  the  highest  facts  of  well-atlested  revelation.     But 
nothing,  on  the  contrary,  can  be  more  inconsequential 
than  the  reasoning  of  the  anti-Christian  Theist.     He 
admits  the  general  proposition  of  the  existence  of  a 
Deity,  but  he  ridicules  as  superstitious  every  practical 
attempt  to  prove  his  moral  superintendence  over  his 
own  works.     He  will  grant  that  the  universe  is  wisely 
put  together,  yet  he  is  offended  at  every  attempt  to 
demonstrate  the  workings  of  that  wisdom,  by  direct- 
ing our  attention  to  final  causes.      He  is  obliged    bv 
a  weight  of  evidence  which  it  is  impossible  to  resist 
to  admit  that  the  world  must  have  had  a  beginning-' 
and  yet  he  argues  as  though  the  assertion  of  the  pos- 
sibility of  any  deviation  from  the  present  quiet  course 
of  events  were  the  highest  absurdity.      He  is  en- 
tangled by  difficulties  at  every  step.     He  denies  the 


! 


I 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON, 


159 


mysterious  facts  of  revelation,  yet  by  his  own  admis- 
sion he  has  assented  to  the  far  more  portentous  posi- 
tions of  natural  religion,  with  all  their  formidable, 
and,  if  Christianity  be  false,  unexplained,  anomalies. 
If  he  can  succeed  in  persuading  himself  that  the 
recorded  miracles  of  one  period  are  the  inventions  of 
a  barbarous  people,  or  the  fabrications  of  imposture, 
he  has  still  to  prove  the  same  proposition  in  like 
manner  of  the  next,  and  of  the  next  after  them,  or  he 
does  nothing.     If  he  deny  the  authenticity  of  the 
Jewish  records  in  all  their  parts,  he  still  has  to  account 
for  the  remarkable  fact  of  the  past  and  present  exist- 
ence of  the  Jews  themselves.      If  he  make  a  like 
attack  upon  the  authenticity  of  the  Christian  Scrip- 
lures,  he  has  again  to  explain,  as  he  can,  the  undeni- 
able phenomenon  of  the  first  origin  and  growth  of  the 
Christian  community  itself,  challenging  inquiry,  as 
we  know  that  it  did,  in  the  face  of  an  enlightened  and 
inimical  age,  as  to  the  reality  of  the  miracles  to  which 
it  appealed  for  its  warrant,  and  persevering  in  Us  faith 
in  defiance  of  the  outstretched  arm  of  secular  power. 
If,  finally,  taking  the  whole  records  of  revelation  to 
pieces,  he   can  establish   a   seeming  detached  and 
occasional  improbability  in  some  one  part  severed 
from  the  rest,  he  has  still  to  explain  how  and  why,  by 
what  accident,  for  contrivance  is  evidently  out  of  the 
question,  these  apparently  anomalous  members,  so 
astounding  when  considered  separately,  should  thus 
happen  to'combine  into  one  continuous  and  consistent 
whole ;  from  what  cause  is  it  that,  in  a  retrospect 
made  at  this  moment  of  the  entire  annals  of  our 
reli<Tion,  no  contrariety  of  purpose  should  be  observa- 
ble In  the  series,  no  one  link  in  the  chain  of  contriv- 
ance be  missing  ;  but  that  all,  from  first  to  last  should 
appear  as  the  work  of  one  single  author,  the  elaborate 
developement  of  one  single  pervading  idea,  which, 
though  never  forming  the  ostensiole  subject  matter, 
should  still  be  traceable  alike  through  the  history, 
the  poetry,  the  ritual,  and  the  prophecies  of  the  Jew. 


I 


1 


I 


158 


CONoISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


which  every  earnest  examination  of  our  purest  moral 
tendencies,  and  of  the  phenomena  of  the  creation 
must  ultimately  lead  us,  it  is  obvious  that  to  minds 
thus   prepared  the  seemingly   improbable,  because 
unusual,  interferences  of  the  Creator  with  the  course 
of  his  own  laws,  recorded  in  the  sacred  writing's,  lose 
at  once  the  greater  portion  of  their  powers  of  embar- 
rassment.    To  a  Christian  and  a  Sceptic,  accordin<Tly 
even  where  the  natural  faculties  of  the  understandm<r 
may  be  granted  to  be  essentially  equal,  the  self-same 
statement  of  facts  upon   these  points  will  lead  to 
directly  opposite  impressions.      The  former,  if  he 
reason  conclusively,  and  with  that  masculine  <rrasp 
of  mind  which  neither  seeks  after  unnecessary  para- 
dox,  nor  flinches  from  the  charge  of  credulity  in  com- 
phance  with  the  prejudices  of  the  indolent  and  half- 
informed,  will  carefully  examine,  in  the  first  place 
the  main  and  primary  propositions  of  religion,  and! 
it  he  hnd  them  established  upon  a  basis  which  it  is 
absolutely  impossible  to  overturn,  will  then  be  content 
to  take  them  with  all  their  consequences  and  accom- 
panying  difficulties,  an;  to  pursue  his  course,  step  by 
step  from  the  simplest  principles  of  natural  theolo4 
to  the  highest  facts  of  well-attested  revelation.     But 
nothing,  on  the  contrary,  can  be  more  inconsequential 
than  the  reasoning  of  the  anti-Christian  Theist.     He 
admits  the  general  proposition  of  the  existence  of  a 
Deity,  but  he  ridicules  as  superstitious  every  practical 
attempt  to  prove  his  moral  superintendence  over  his 
own  works.     He  will  grant  that  the  universe  is  wisely 
put  together,  yet  he  is  offended  at  every  attempt  la 
demonstrate  the  workings  of  that  wisdom,  by  direct- 
ing our  attention  to  final  causes.      He  is  obliged    bv 
a  weight  of  evidence  which  it  is  impossible  to  resist 
to  admit  that  the  world  must  have  had  a  beginnino-' 
and  yet  he  argues  as  though  the  assertion  of  the  pos' 
sibility  of  any  deviation  from  the  present  quiet  course 
of  events  were  the  highest  absurdity.      He  is  en- 
tangled  by  difficulties  at  every  step.     He  denies  the 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


159 


mysterious  facts  of  revelation,  yet  by  his  own  admis- 
sion he  has  assented  to  the  far  more  portentous  posi- 
tions of  natural  religion,  with  all  their  formidable, 
and,  if  Christianity  be  false,  unexplained,  anomalies. 
If  he  can  succeed  in  persuading  himself  that  the 
recorded  miracles  of  one  period  are  the  inventions  of 
a  barbarous  people,  or  the  fabrications  of  imposture, 
he  has  still  to  'prove  the  same  proposition  in  like 
manner  of  the  next,  and  of  the  next  after  them,  or  he 
does  nothing.      If  he  deny  the  authenticity  of  the 
Jewish  records  in  all  their  parts,  he  still  has  to  account 
for  the  remarkable  fact  of  the  past  and  present  exist- 
ence of  the  Jews  themselves.      If  he  make  a  like 
attack  upon  the  authenticity  of  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures, he  has  again  to  explain,  as  he  can,  the  undeni- 
able phenomenon  of  the  first  origin  and  growth  of  the 
Christian  community  itself,  challenging  inquiry,  as 
we  know  that  it  did,  in  the  face  of  an  enlightened  and 
inimical  age,  as  to  the  reality  of  the  miracles  to  which 
it  appealed  for  its  warrant,  and  persevering  in  its  faith 
in  defiance  of  the  outstretched  arm  of  secular  power. 
If,  finally,  taking  the  whole  records  of  revelation  to 
pieces,  he   can  establish   a   seeming  detached  and 
occasional  improbability  in  some  one  part  severed 
from  the  rest,  he  has  still  to  explain  how  and  why,  by 
what  accident,  for  contrivance  is  evidently  out  of  the 
question,  these  apparently  anomalous  members,  so 
astounding  when  considered  separately,  should  thus 
happen  to  combine  into  one  continuous  and  consistent 
whole ;  from  what  cause  is  it  that,  in  a  retrospect 
made  at  this  moment  of  the  entire  annals  of  our 
religion,  no  contrariety  of  purpose  should  be  observa- 
ble In  the  series,  no  one  link  in  the  chain  of  contriv- 
ance be  missing  ;  but  that  all,  from  first  to  last,  should 
appear  as  the  work  of  one  single  author,  the  elaborate 
developement  of  one  single  pervading  idea,  which, 
though  never  forming  the  ostensiole  subject  matter, 
should  still  be  traceable  alike  through  the  history, 
the  poetry,  the  ritual,  and  the  prophecies  of  the  Jew- 


160 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


ish  nation,  till  it  finally  expanded  into  the  completion 
of  the  presumed  great  scheme  of  Providence  in  the 
form  of  the  Christian  revelation.  Whilst  such  are 
the  acknowledged  difficulties  attendant  upon  iheistical 
scepticism,  it  surely  is  not  for  its  professors  to  pride 
themselves  in  their  own  clear  and  consistent  views, 
and  to  charge  their  believing  opponents  with  credulity 
and  superstition. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Consistency  betteeen  the  Covenant  of  Moses  and  that  of  Christ,  as 
having  an  expiation  for  Sin  as  their  leading  oltject.  The  Levitical 
expiations  were  confessedly  ineffectual.  It  must  be  presumed, 
therefore,  that  the  great  purpose  of  the  Gospel  Dispensation  iras 
to  correct  this  deficiency.  The  popular  Objections  to  the  Doctrine 
of  ChriaVs  Atonement  examined. 

There  is  this  very  striking  and  obvious  distinction 
between  the  Mosaic  covenant  and  that  of  Christ,  that, 
while  both  claim  equally  to  be  a  communication  from 
heaven,  the  former  is  confessedly,  and  by  its  own 
express  admission,  a  mere  preparatory  arrangement, 
adapted  to  the  habits  of  a  single  people,  for  the  intro- 
duction of  a  more  perfect  system ;  whilst  the  latter, 
addressing  itself  to  the  whole  human  race  indiscrimi- 
nately,  is  declared  to  be  absolutely  final,  the  grand 
summary  of  all  such  theological  knowledge  as  man  in 
this  world  can  ever  hope  to  attain  to,  and  the  com- 
pletion of  his  reconciliation  with  God.  It  is  thus 
that,  from  their  relative  position,  the  one  dispensation 
bears  reciprocal  evidence  to  the  authenticity  of  the 
other.  When  considered  as  the  nurse  and  forerunner 
of  Christianity,  Judaism  acquires  a  consistency  of 
character,  which,  if  adduced  as  a  dispensation  com- 
plete and  entire  in  itself,  it  manifestly  could  lay  no 
claim  to.  Its  perfection  is  altogether  of  a  relative  and 
not  of  a  positive  character.  It  is  precisely  what  might 
have  been  expected  of  the  Divine  wisdom,  when  con- 


B 


r 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


161 


descending  to  legislate  for  the  temporal,  no  less  than 
for  the  spiritual,  concerns  of  an  unpolished  people, 
and  intent  upon  occupying  a  certain,  otherwise  com- 
pletely dark,  portion  in  the  moral  history  of  our  nature, 
by    the    establishment   of    provisional   institutions, 
especially  adapted  to  that  peculiar  emergency.     On 
the  other  hand,  it  bears  no  one  characteristic  which 
would  justify  us  in  considering  it  as  intended  for  the 
benefit  of  the  whole  human  race,  or  for  any  nation 
very  far  advanced  in  spiritual  holiness.     Christianity, 
then,  thus  considered,  comes  to  us  as  the  continuation 
and  completion  of  a  course  of  Divine  agency,  which 
had  been  in  operation  from  the  very  beginning  of  the 
world,  and  which,  after  a  long  series  of  delays  and 
impediments,  the  result  of  the  opposition  afforded  to  it 
by  man's  vices  and  ignorance,  was  at  length  fully 
developed  at  the  earliest  period  which  would  admit 
of  its  promulgation.     It  is  thus  that  the  same  miracles 
which  originally  bore  evidence  to  the  truth  of  the 
Mosaic  mission  serve  to  confirm  also  that  superior 
form  of  religion  which  grew  out  of  it,  and  finally 
superseded  it ;  whilst  to  that  strong  weight  of  previous 
testimony  must  be  a»lded,  as  accessory  and  accumula- 
live  proof,  all  the  recorded  miracles  connected  with 
the  coming  of  Christ ;  those  declared  to  have  been 
performed  immediately  by  himself,  and  all  those  stu- 
pendous events  which  were  subsequently  borne  wit- 
ness to  by  his  first  followers  and  the  primitive  Church. 
If  then,  the  evidence  of  the  authenticity  of  the  Mosaic 
law,  when  considered  singly,  is  strong,  and  strong 
assuredly  it  is,  that  of  the  certainty  of  the  religion  ot 
Christ  is  still  more  so,  whether  we  look  to  the  number 
of  miracles  to  which  it  can  appeal,  the  intrinsic  purity 
of  its  precepts,  the  more  spiritual  character  ot  the 
devotional  feeling  which  it  inculcates,  the  advanced 
state  of  human  manners  and  knowledge  which  pre- 
vailed at  the   time   of  its   first  establishment,  and 
the  much  more  extensive  theatre  of  human  society 
in  which  the  phenomena  of  its  promulgation  were 

14* 


162 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


enacted.      Considered,  then,  retrospectively,  as  the 
slow  developement  of  a  long  series  of  elaborate  con- 
trivances,  purchased  often   by  a  suspension  of  the 
established  laws  of  the  universe,  and  uniformly  con- 
ducted by  the  fostering  care  of  its  Divine  Founder, 
through  every  seeming  fluctuation  of  fortune  to  its 
final  establishment,  it  suggests  a  truly  awful  and 
appalling  idea  of  the  vast  importance  of  the  institu- 
tions which  were  thus-solemnly  introduced.     Pro- 
vidence, for  the  most  part,  moves  onward  so  quietly 
and  imperceptibly  toward  the  accomplishment  of  its 
designs,  that  we  cannot   but  deem  such  a  striking 
departure  from  its  usual  simplicity  of  execution,  as  that 
here  contemplated,  as  arguing  a  far  more  imposing 
solemnity  of  purpose  than  is  referable  to  the  ordinary 
course  of  events.      The  vast  length  and  majestic 
character  of  the  approach  which  leads  to  the  shrine  of 
Christianity  is  the  strongest   possible  proof  of  the 
sanctity  of  the  mysterious  edifice  itself.     If  that  dis- 
pensation,  then,   be  authentic,  it  manifestly  is  one 
which  implies  no  trivial  routine  of  moral  duty  or 
common-place  assent  of  the  heart  and  understanding 
on  our  part,  nor,  in  fact,  any  thing  which  could,  in 
the  course  of  the   workings  of  Divine  wisdom,  be 
produced  by  a  less  intricate,  and,  humanly  speaking, 
more  natural  process.     The  inference  resulting  from 
this  last  observation  is  one  of  vast  importance  in  the 
discussion  of  the  question, — what  the  main  object  of 
the  Gospel  is  ?  because  it  enables  us  confidently  to 
pronounce  (and  that  in  exact  accordance  with  the 
most  explicit  and  literal  declarations  of  Scripture) 
what  il^is  not.      Its  main  end  and  purport,  then,  as- 
suredly, is  not  any  thing  which  fell  within  the  com- 
petency of  the  law  of  Moses  to  attain :  for,  as  that 
law  proceeded  from  the  same  Divine  source,  it  is  self- 
evident  that  it  would  never  have  been  superseded  by 
its  Almighty  framer,  had  it  contained  within  itself 
the  means  for  the  effective  accomplishment  of  that 
result  which  a  revelation  from  heaven  must  be  pre- 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


163 


sumed  to  have  had  in  view.     "  If  righteousness  could 
have  been  by  the  law,"  says  St.  Paul,  "then  it  had 
not  been  by  faith."     This  argument  is  perfectly  un- 
answerable.    It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  if  we  would 
arrive  at  what  must,  necessarily,  have  been  the  great 
and  foremost  purpose  of  the  scheme  of  Christianity, 
it  must  be  found,  by  examining  what  was  the  specific 
point  which,  notwithstanding  the  holy  source  from 
which  it  proceeded,  was  left  unaccomplished  by  the 
ritual  law  of  Moses.     Noav  that  mere  morals,  and 
in  addition  to  what  usually  passes  under  that  denom- 
ination, a  deep  impression  of  the  worship  and  rever- 
ence due  to  the  Supreme  Being,  were  inculcated  by 
the  Levitical  law,  almost  as  fully  as  in  that  of  Christ 
himself,  is  manifest  upon  the  slightest  perusal.     If  we 
add  to  the  declarations  of  the  Decalogue  the  numerous 
beautiful  exhortations  to  acts  of  mercy  and  brotherly 
Love,  and  forgiveness  of  enemies,  which  we  find  inter- 
spersed through  the  Jewish  code,  some  specimens  of 
which  have  already  been  extracted  in  the  preceding 
pages,  we  arrive  at  a  system  of  duty  with  reference 
to  God,  and  of  practical  morality  with  regard  to  nian, 
very  little  inferior  to  the  most  perfect  injunctions 
comprehended  in  the  New   Testament.     And  even 
though  we  admit,  as  in  some  respects  we  are  bound  to 
do,  the  inferiority  oflhe  former  institutes  to  the  latter 
in  that  respect,  still,  at  all  events,  we  see  no  reason 
why  mere  moral  and  devotional  precepts,  even  of  the 
highest  possible  perfection,  might  not,  if  that  were 
the  sole  object  of  the  scheme  of  revelation,  have  been 
included  in  them,  without  that  vast  expenditure  (if 
we  may  venture  to  use  the  expression)  of  continuous 
miracle  which  is  recorded  in   the  whole  series  of 
Scripture,  both  Jewish  and  Christian. 

No  conclusion,  then,  can  be  more  certain  than  that, 
as  there  is  no  superfluity  in  the  workings  of  Divine 
wisdom,  the  Christian  dispensation  must  have  com- 
prised some  ulterior  object,  higher  even  than  that  of 
the  instruction  of  mankind  in  its  most  imperative 


i 


i 


if 


164 


CONSISTENCY    OF   REVELATION 


principles  of  duty.  But  if  so,  what  then  was,  or 
what  can  be  imagined  to  be,  that  still  higher  object  ? 
Scripture  would  answer  this  question  for  us,  even  if 
the  inferences  of  reason  were  silent.  The  Mosaic 
institutions  had  confessedly  two  great  ostensible  pur- 
poses in  view.  Its  first  and  most  prominent  object 
was,  undoubtedly,  the  inculcation  of  holiness, — 
understanding,  by  that  expression,  man's  religious 
submission  to  the  Almighty,  and  his  social  morality 
in  the  intercourse  with  his  fellow-creatures.  On  these 
points  the  Divine  legislator  addresses  himself  with 
that  impressive  solemnity  and  awful  purity  of  idea 
which  might  be  expected  on  such  a  subject,  from  so 
august  a  quarter.  But  to  apprehend  our  duty  is  one 
thing,  to  perform  it,  duly  and  adequately,  is  another. 
God  may  instruct  us  ;  and  in  such  a  case  the  lesson 
will,  assuredly,  be  worthy  of  its  author :  but  will  man 
always  therefore  obey  ?  This  is  the  really  vital  point 
on  wnich  every  theory  of  religion,  with  the  exception 
of  that  of  the  Gospel,  is  found  deficient.  It  is,  in  a 
practical  sense  at  least,  necessary  that  offences  should 
come.  What,  then,  is  to  be  the  consequence  when 
wretched  human  nature  is  the  offender,  and  the 
angust  Maker  of  the  universe  the  Judge  ?  With 
reference,  then,  to  this  most  perplexing  question,  the 
Levitical  ritual  has  a  second  object,  scarcely  less 
elaborately  provided  for  than  the  first,  namely,  a 
system  of  sacrificial  and  oblatory  expiations,  profess- 
edly intended  for  the  removal  of  the  spiritual  conse- 
quences of  offences  springing  from  the  natural  cor- 
ruption and  waywardness  of  the  human  heart.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  observe,  that  this  part  of  the 
Divine  law  entirely  failed  of  its  effect,  plainly  and 
simply  because,  from  its  inherent  worthlessness,  it  was 
incompetent  to  accoriiplish  it.  It  possessed  merely 
the  secondary  value  of  a  type,  and  not  the  primary  and 
inherent  efficacy  of  an  antitype.  "  It  is  not  possible,'* 
says  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  "  that 
the  blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats  should  take  away  sins.** 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


165 


The  same  language  had  been  previously  held  by  all 
the  later  inspired  penmen  of  the  old  covenant.  And 
yet,  with  the  exception  of  this  figurative  deprecatory 
rite,  what  had  human  infirmity  to  offer  as  the  requi- 
site propitiation  ?  God  seems,  on  this  occasion,  pur- 
posely to  have  called  forth,  and  to  have  given  a 
momentary  sanction  to,  the  utmost  of  man's  limited 
means  of  reconciliation,  in  order  that  he  might  more 
forcibly  inculcate  the  humiliating  lesson  of  its  ineffi- 
ciency, and,  by  a  natural  train  of  thought,  eventually 
lead  liis  mind  onward  to  some  more  satisfactory 
process  of  expiation.  What,  then,  the  law  of  Moses 
manifestly,  because  confessedly,  aimed  at  without 
success,  we  may  be  perfectly  certain  that  it  was  the 
foremost  object  of  the  Christian  dispensation  to 
achieve.  It  is  to  the  atonement  of  Christ,  there- 
fore, (that  mysterious  doctrine  so  much  ridiculed  by 
the  professed  Infidel,  and  so  insidiously  impugned  by 
the  semi-Christian,  that  stumbling-block  to  the  timid 
rationalist  of  modern  times,  as  it  was  to  the  Jew  and 
to  the  Gentile  of  old,)  that  we  must  look  for  the  one 
main  and  prominent  idea  which  is  to  give  consistency, 
from  first  to  last,  to  the  whole  series  of  revelation. 
Without  this  connecting  link,  this  harmonious  con- 
summation of  a  long  tissue  of  preparatory  contriv- 
ances, Judaism  and  Christianity  must  have  been 
considered  rather  as  rival  systems,  each  laying  claim 
to  the  same  miraculous  sanctions,  and  contesting  with 
one  another  for  the  supremacy,  than  as  graduated 
stages  in  one  vast  and  comprehensive  purpose.  Even 
in  this  advanced  period  of  the  world,  the  purged  and 
scaled  eye  of  the  enlightened  Christian  moralist  can 
find  little  to  amend  in  the  didactic  portions  of  the 
Mosaic  writings,  and,  considering  them  solely  in  this 
point  of  view,  would  be  disposed  to  place  them,  side 
by  side,  with  the  moral  precepts  of  the  Gospel,  as 
concurrent  oracles  of  the  Divine  will,  both  of  them^ 
respectively,  having  a  claim  to  his  obedience.  But 
once  admit  the  one  preeminent  and  momentous  truth 


166 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


i 


here  alluded  to,  as  the  prominent  aim  of  both  the 
former  and  the  latter  dispensations,  and  immediately 
all  the  respective  portions  of  both  covenants  fall,  as 
it  were  of  their  own  accord,  each  into  its  proper  rela- 
tive position,  and,  without  derogating  from  the  wis- 
dom of  purpose  displayed  in  either,  contribute  to  the 
symmetry  of  the  whole  design.  On  the  other  hand, 
deny  the  justice  of  the  inference,  and  from  that  mo- 
ment it  is  impossible  for  us  to  surmise  what  was  that 
peculiar  characteristic  of  the  Gospel  scheme  which 
the  spirit  of  early  prophecy  so  eagerly  anticipated, 
and  which,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  was  so  triumph- 
antly announced  to  mankind.  "  Your  Father,  Abra- 
ham," said  our  blessed  Saviour,  "  rejoiced  to  see  my 
day;  and  he  saw  it,  and  was  glad."  What  was  it, 
the  anticipated  sight  of  which,  through  a  long  vista 
of  nearly  two  thousand  years,  caused  that  holy  person 
thus  to  rejoice  ?  The  communication  of  a  mere  law 
of  perfect  morality,  for  the  amendment  of  human 
manners  ?  If  so,  he  might  have  exulted  in  the  antici- 
pation of  the  coming  of  his  descendant  Moses  almost 
as  justly  as  in  that  of  the  more  remote  Jesus.  Was 
it  the  revelation  of  the  great  doctrine  of  the  soul's 
immortality?  Setting  aside  the  connexion  between 
the  establishment  of  this  doctrine  and  Christ's  expia- 
tory sacrifice  for  sin,  there  seems  to  be  no  assignable 
reason  why  this  important  truth  should  not  have  been 
directly  communicated  by  revelation  to  Abraham 
himself;  and  still  less  can  we  see  why  it  should  not 
have  been  inserted  among  the  acknowledged  sanc- 
tions of  the  Mosaic  law.  If,  then,  it  was  withheld 
from  the  prior  dispensations,  whilst  it  formed  an 
integral  constituent  of  the  latter  covenant  of  the 
Gospel,  the  reason  must  have  been,  because  the  Gos- 
pel contains  what  the  ritual  law  does  not  contain. 
But  what  was  the  distinguishing  feature  of  the 
Christian  scheme  must  be  admitted  also  to  have 
been  its  foremost  purpose.  The  mysterious  pro- 
pitiation of  Christ  evidently  constitutes  the  former; 


Wrm   HUMAN   REASON^ 


167 


we,  therefore,  reasonably  conclude  it  to  have  been 
the  latter. 

Nothing,  then,  surely  can  be  more  inconsequential 
than  the  reasoning  of  those  persons  who,  assenting 
to  the  general  truth  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  would 
cut  out  from  them  this  their  essential  and  peculiar 
doctrine.  Such  inconsistency,  however,  exists,  as  we 
all  know,  among  many  professed  believers  in  revela- 
tion. That  it  does  so  exist  we  can  account  for  only 
by  that  unfortunate  tendency  in  mankind  to  measure 
the  extraordinary  agency  of  Providence,  in  momentous 
and  extreme  cases,  by  the  standard  of  common  occur- 
rences, and  more  especially  by  the  want  of  large  and 
comprehensive  views  of  the  general  tenor  of  Scrips 
ture  ;  in  other  words,  by  the  habit  unhappily  so  preva- 
lent with  a  large  portion  of  readers,  of  selecting  from 
the  whole  mass  of  the  sacred  writings  such  passages 
as  accord  with  their  own  preconceived  views,  and 
acknowledging  nothing  for  revealed  truth  but  what, 
without  the  aid  of  revelation,  might  have  been  plausi- 
bly assumed  as  the  probable  system  of  Providence, 
by  the  mere  effort  of  unassisted  reason. 

The  great  doctrine,  then,  of  Christ  crucified  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world,  being  the  one  main  proposi- 
tion which  constitutes  the  essential  characteristic  of 
Christianity,  it  is  obvious,  that  upon  a  right  appre- 
hension of  this  fundamental  principle  must  depend 
the  accuracy  and  soundness  of  our  conclusions,  with 
respect  to  all  the  collateral  and  consequential  infer- 
ences deducible  from  it.  The  chief  cardinal  point 
being  established,  the  harmonious  connexion  which 
combines  the  whole  theory  of  the  Gospel  covenant 
into  one  consistent  whole  becomes  immediately 
traceable.  This  consideration  will  justify  our  reca- 
pitulating, in  this  place,  in  some  detail,  and  at  the 
risk  of  the  charge  of  prolixity,  the  arguments  deduci- 
ble from  reason  and  from  Scripture  in  its  support. 

The  books  of  the  Old  and  of  the  New  Testament 
then,  it  may,  in  the  first  place,  be  obsarved,  have 


J 


I 


168 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


each  their  one  peculiar  and  leading  idea  to  establish, 
which,  like  the  respective  portions  of  a  tally,  cor* 
respond  with  and  illustrate  each  other :  that  of  the 
former  covenant  is  the  fall  of  man,  with  all  its  conse* 
quences  of  moral  degradation  and  alienation  from 
God ;  that  of  the  latter  is  the  mode  adopted  by  our 
Maker,  for  the  ultimate  correction  of  human  depravity, 
and  for  our  final  reconciliation  with  him.  Now  it 
has  been  already  laid  down,  as  a  preliminary  rule,  m 
all  theological  discussions,  that  it  is  perfectly  vain,^ 
if  not  impious,  in  us,  where  the  facts  of  our  moral 
position  are  palpably  and  demonstrably  certain,  to  be 
inventing  theories  and  suggesting  modes,  by  which 
we  conceive  that  the  ends  of  Providence  might  have 
been  more  cheaply  and  more  expeditiously  accom- 
plished, than  by  those  which  we  find  experimentally 
to  have  been  adopted.  With  regard,  therefore,  ta 
the  continually  recurring  question,  why  man  was  not 
originally  placed,  as  we  have  reason  to  believe  that 
some  higher  orders  of  intellectual  beings  have  been 
placed,  in  a  condition  of  sufficient  moral  elevation  ta 
secure  him  from  the  risk  of  forfeiture,  and  why  it  has- 
been  so  arranged  that  he  should  previously  fall,  and 
be  subsequently  raised,  only  at  the  cost  of  much 
painful  discipline  and  hazard,  to  that  very  state  in 
which,  had  God  so  pleased,  he  might  orisfinally  have 
found  himself,  our  answer  is,  that  questions  of  this 
nature  are  irrelevant  to  the  real  object  of  discussion, 
A  sound  theory  of  religion,  we  repeat,  is  not  that  which 
lends  itself  to  all  the  caprices  of  a  fantastic  imagination 
ranging  through  the  vast  field  of  presumed  possibili- 
ties, but  which,  taking  for  granted,  and  stating  fairly 
the  undoubted  phenomena  of  our  nature,  supplies  from 
some  adequate,  and  therefore,  as  it  would  seem,, 
necessarily  superhuman,  source,  the  information  how 
such  a  state  of  things  is  compatible  with  the  workings 
of  infinite  wisdom  and  goodness.  As,  then,  it  were 
mere  captiousness  to  allege  arguments  against  the 
probability  of  the  fact  of  man's  first  fall  from  a  state 


' 


! 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


m 


of  innocence,  so  long  as  we  are  practically  certain 
that  at  all  events  our  present  moral  constitution 
is  precisely  such  as  it  would  be,  were  that  statement 
demonstrably  true,  so  assuredly  it  must  be  equally 
unreasonable  to  adduce  objections  against  the  doctrine 
of  Christ's  atonement,  if  the  unanswerable  test  of 
experiment  unite  with  the  express  assertion  of  Scrip- 
ture, in  assuring  us,  that  no  means  of  extrication 
from  our  present  degraded  condition  ever  have  been, 
or  in  the  nature  of  things  appear  possible  to  be,  sug- 
gested, excepting  such  as  have  a  vicarious  expiation 
for  their  base.  That  such  is  really  the  case  will 
perhaps  appear  probable  from  the  following  consi- 
derations. 

In  the  first  place,  it  may  be  safely  asserted,  that 
the  obvious  purport  of  a  vast  number  of  passages, 
both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  when  taken  in 
their  most  literal  interpretation,  suggests  the  theory 
of  an  expiatory  atonement  for  sin,  independent,  in 
sonie  degree,  of  the  actual  internal  merit  of  human 
actions ;  because  thus  much  is  confessed  by  even  the 
most  strenuous  impugners  of  this  doctrine,  who,  in 
other  respects,  profess  to  receive  the  Holy  Scriptures 
as  the  inspired  Word  of  God.  It  is  on  the  intrinsic 
improbability  of  an  arrangement  which  they  assume 
to  be  incompatible  with  the  workings  of  infinite  wis- 
dom, that  such  persons  almost  uniformly  found  their 
opposition  to  it ;  and,  on  the  strength  of  that  principle, 
they  conceive  themselves  justified  in  explaining 
away,  or  taking  in  a  metaphorical  sense,  assertions, 
the  direct  inference  deducible  from  which  they  admit 
would  authorize  the  assumption  of  its  truth.  It 
cannot,  therefore,  be  considered  as  begging  the  ques- 
tion, if  we  take  the  apparently  affirmative  language 
of  revelation  for  granted,  leaving  to  our  opponents  the 
salvo,  if  tenable,  of  considering  those  expressions  as 
merely  figurative,  which,  unless  we  are  willing  to 
deprive  Holy  Writ  of  most  of  its  essential  value,  and 
of  all  its  consistency,  we  conceive  must  be  received  as 

15 


7 


170 


CONSISTENCY  OF    REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


171 


I 


literal.  With  this  assumption,  then,  on  our  part,  we 
would  observe,  that  the  most  hardy  opponents  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  atonement,  who  at  the  same  time 
profess  their  belief  in  a  future  slate  of  rewards  and 
punishments,  must  necessarily  rest  their  hostility  to 
It  on  one  or  more  of  the  following  grounds.  Either 
they  must,  in  the  first  place,  be  ready  to  assert  that 
human  nature  can  maintain  that  uniform  degree  of 
innocence  and  holiness  which  Christianity  requires, 
and  which  would  serve  to  qualify  the  soul  for  a  future 
state  of  heavenly  blessedness,  by  its  own  natural 
powers  of  perfect  obedience  to  an  absolutely  perfect 
law,  and  thus  that  it  stands  in  no  need  of  an  external 
expiation  : — or,  secondly,  they  must  show  that  re- 
pentance, when  sincere,  is  a  sufficient  substitute  for 
the  before-mentioned  qualities: — or,  thirdly,  that  it 
is  not  inconsistent  with  our  notions  of  a  perfect  moral 
and  holy  Creator  to  overlook,  in  some  degree,  from 
his  mere  grace  and  free-will,  the  distinctions  between 
vice  and  virtue,  and  to  bestow  upon  the  former  the 
rewards  which  would  seem  due  only  to  the  latter  : — 
or,  fourthly,  they  must  be  content  to  suppose  a  con- 
gruity  between  the  ultimate  destination  of  mankind 
hereafter,  and  their  present  very  imperfect  and  sub- 
ordinate position  here  :  in  other  words,  they  must 
depart  from  the  broad  principle  of  Christian  belief, 
and  conceive  the  heaven,  assigned  even  to  the  best 
men  in  a  future  state,  like  the  Elysium  of  the  poets, 
to  be  such  merely  as  the  experimentally  feeble  powers 
of  obedience  allotted  to  our  nature  would  be  com- 
petent to  earn.  The  three  former  of  these  proposi- 
tions, it  will  be  readily  observed,  are  encumbered  each 
with  their  respective  difficulties,  as  completely  re- 
pugnant to  our  notions  of  the  Divine  attributes  as 
any  which  can  be  alleged  against  that  doctrine  which 
they  are  intended  to  overthrow  :  the  last  of  them  is, 
in  fact,  giving  up  the  question  altogether,  since,  as 
was  just  now  observed,  it  is  nothing  more  than  the 
denial  of  a  future  state  of  perfection,  such  as  the  Gos- 


pel exhorts  us  to  aspire  to,  and  the  substitution  in  its 
place  of  a  subordinate  existence,  little  different  in 
character  and  circumstances  from  that  through  which 
we  are  now  passing. 

Quae  gratia  curnwim 
Armorumque  fuit  vivis,  quae  ciira  nitentea 
Pascere  equtjs,  eadem  sequitur  tellure  lepostoe. 

Now  the  first  of  the  foregoing  suppositions,  namely, 
that  perfect  obedience,  and  such  a  degree  of  holiness 
as  would  qualify  for  the  joys  of  the  heaven  revealed 
in  the  Scriptures,  are  really  within  the  reach  of  man's 
natural  powers  to  attain,  is  obviously  one  which 
clashes  with  the  uniform  experience  of  mankind  in 
all  ages  :  and  even  supposing  it  to  be  conditionally 
and  possibly  true,  is,  at  all  events,  known  to  be  prac- 
tically false.  The  presumed  good  man  of  such  a 
creed  as  that  here  assumed,  would  be  like  the  wise 
man  of  the  Stoics,  a  mere  abstract  creature  of  the 
imagination,  of  which  we  find  nothing  like  a  counter- 
part in  the  existing  order  of  things.  Not  only  do  we 
find  it  impossible  to  point  out,  either  in  the  records 
of  past  history,  or  within  our  own  times,  any  one 
human  being  w^hom  we  should  be  justified  in  consider- 
ing as  a  perfect  specimen  of  what  we  ought  to  be, 
taking  the  Christian  code  of  morals  as  our  standard; 
but,  in  the  next  place,  even  if  such  a  faultless  monster 
could  here  or  there  be  found,  it  w^ould  still  by  no 
means  prove  the  point  in  question.  It  is  self-evident, 
that  perfect  intrinsic  holiness  can  deserve  that  appel- 
lation only  when  it  subsists  independently  of  any 
external  help  and  excitement,  and  acts  entirely  by  its 
own  free-will,  unoperated  upon  either  by  the  hope  of 
reward  or  the  fear  of  punishment..  But  here  is  at 
once  the  assumption  of  an  impossibility.  We  know, 
practically,  that  the  influence  of  external  motives, 
such  as  those  now  alluded  to,  extends  frequently  not 
merely  to  the  prevention  of  any  positive  overt  acts 
of  sin,  where  the  heart  is  confessedly  hardened,  but 
tliat  it  also,  by  habitually  checking  the  first  com- 


J^ 


}  I 


172 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


mencement  of  evil  thoughts,  creates  within  us  a  feel- 
ing of  innocence  to  which,  in  strictness,  we  can  lay 
no  claim.     The  general  conviction  that,  under  the 
actually  existing  circumstances  which   respectively 
modify  every  man's  power  of  action,  the  practical 
commission  of  any  gross  overt  act  of  sin  is  impossi- 
ble, IS  generally  quite  enough  to  prevent,  during  the 
continuance  of  that  impossibility,  the  inclination  to 
sin  from  suggesting  itself  to  the  imagination.      Pre- 
cisely  as  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere,  by  its  action 
upon  the  elastic  and  resisting  forces  of  the  compound 
materials  of  the  globe,  keeps  them  in  a  state  of  per- 
manent  inaction,  which  appears  natural  to  them  only 
because  they  have  no  opportunity  of  displaying  the 
powers  of  destruction  with  which   they  are  really 
invested,  so  in  like  manner  the  hopes  and  apprehen- 
sions of  religion,  the  powerful  influence  of  public 
opinion,  and  the  consequently  superinduced  restraint 
of  habit,  all  silently  combine  to  keep  in  a  quiescent  state 
those  turbulent  passions  of  the  human  breast  which, 
were  that  influence  removed,  %vould  assuredly  break 
out  into  impetuous  action.      The  fact  of  our  own 
mnocence,  therefore,  even  when  we  feel  ourselves 
most  justified  in  pleading  it,  is  but  a  negative  ar<ru- 
ment  at  the  best.     That  we  are  ignorant  of  ourselves 
IS  one  of  the  most  trite,  because  it  is  one  of  the  most 
certain,  maxims  of  ethical  wisdom.     The  fact  is,  that 
no  inan  knows  the  real  and  fearful  extent  of  his'own 
weakness  till  he  has  been  eflectually  tried.     But  it  is 
obvious  that  in  this  world  a  complete   trial  of  the 
purity  and  strength  of  our  principles  is  impossible, 
because  we  have  no  means  of  acting  independently 
ot  those  many  restraints  with  which  Providence  has 
in  Its  wisdom,  surrounded  us,  and  to  which  even  the 
best  men  must  owe  no  small  portion  of  their  apparent 
innocence.      The  more  we  know  of  our  own  nature, 
by  means  of  the   melancholy  conviction  which   is 
occasionally  forced  upon  us  by  our  own  lapses,  and 
the  more  we  acquire  the  habit  of  measuring  even  our 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


173 


best  motives  by  the  standard  of  the  eternal  rules  of 

Divine  morals,  the  more  deeply  are  we  necessarily 

impressed   with  the   conviction  of  one  inability  to 

attain  to  any  thing  deserving  the  name  of  positive 

holiness,  by  our  natural  powers.     A  person  in  fetters 

might  as  justly  boast  of  his  abstaining  from  acts  of 

violence,  as  a  human  being,  however  innocent  he 

may  appear  externally,  take  merit  to  himself  for  that 

abstinence  from  guilt  which  the  mercies  of  his  Creator 

have  fortunately  put  out  of  his  power,  and  perhaps 

also,  at  the  same  time,  refused  him  the  inclination  to 

commit.     Now  that  such  a  being,  the  greater  part  of 

whose  demerits  are  of  a  positive,  whilst  his  apparent 

merits  are  merely  of  a  negative,  character,  should 

aspire,  through  his  exertions,  to  the  rewards  of  heaven, 

appears  a  palpable  absurdity.      And  yet  such  is  the 

absurdity  maintained  by  those  persons  who  teach  that 

the  whole  object  of  the  Christian  revelation  is  the 

inculcation  of  a  perfect  law  of  morals,  our  complete 

obedience  to  which  is  to  be  our  passport  to  the  joys 

of  eternity.  .». 

But  this  self-same  argument  is  open  to  other,  and 
not  less  insuperable,  objections.  If  one  truth  is  more 
certain  than  another,  both  from  natural  reason  and 
the  express  assertions  of  Scripture,  it  is  this,  that  the 
knowledge  of  the  principles  of  morality  and  religion 
is  the  cause,  because  without  it  we  should  not  possess 
the  capability,  of  sin.  The  more  perfect,  therefore, 
that  knowledge  is,  provided  the  original  waywardness 
and  perversity  of  our  moral  faculties  remain  unal- 
tered, the  more  glaring  will  be  our  disobedience,  and 
consequently  our  guilt,  and  through  that  guilt,  our 
eventual  responsibility.  Need  we  ask,  why  we  abomi- 
nate in  our  fellow-creatures  the  self-same  sanguinary 
>spirit  which  we  pardon  in  the  wild  beast  of  prey  ? 
Why  we  spare  the  mischievous  idiot,  whilst  we  punish 
the  deliberate  robber  and  murderer  ?  This  is  a  dis- 
linction  which  the  lowest  grade  of  uncivilized  man  is 
capable  of  making,  and  the  certainty  of  which  the 

15* 


f 


174 


CONSISTENCY   OF  REVELATION 


merest  infant  can  perceive.  The  natural  conscience 
of  mankind  requires  not  to  be  told  that  a  previous 
acquaintance  with  a  prohibitory  rule,  and  a  convic- 
tion that  that  rule  which  we  violate,  has  a  claim  to 
our  obedience,  is  necessary  to  constitute  guilt ;  in 
other  words,  that  it  is  impossible  to  rebel  against 
authority,  of  the  existence  and  legitimacy  of  which  we 
are  ignorant.  This  argument,  however,  if  correct,  is 
at  once  fatal  to  the  theory  of  those  persons  who 
would  inculcate  that  the  promulgation  of  the  Gospel 
covenant  meant  nothing  more,  and,  in  fact,  is  nothing 
more,  than  the  annunciation  of  a  moral  law,  only 
rendered  more  impressive  and  more  binding  upon 
the  conscience  than  any  similar  codes  which  have 
preceded  it,  in  consequence  of  its  having  been  pro- 
claimed by  Divine  authority,  and  ratified  by  the  opera- 
tion of  miracles.  What,  it  will  naturally  be  asked  in 
reply,  is  the  benefit  accruing  to  mankind  from  the 
revelation  of  the  Divine  morality  of  the  Gospel,  if, 
after  all,  it  leaves  man  in  point  of  practical  obedience 
precisely  where  it  found  him  ?  It  after  having  shown 
nis  incompetency  to  obey  an  imperfect  law,  he  finds 
this  elaborate  arrangement  of  Providence  only  adding 
to  his  task,  and  calling  him  to  the  performance  of 
still  higher  duties  than  those  which  have  already  been 
found  to  exceed  his  strength  ?  In  fact,  the  hypothesis 
of  the  rationalist  Christian,  as  he  styles  himself, 
involves  so  many  untenable  propositions,  that  it  is 
perfectly  surprising  that  it  should  be  so  confidently 
urged  as  it  has  been,  and  still  is,  as  a  sufficient  demon- 
stration of  the  unreasonableness  of  the  doctrine  of 
Christ's  atonement.  That  its  assertors,  in  order  to 
accommodate  their  principles  to  the  declarations  of 
Scripture,  are  often  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  ex- 
plaining away  and  distorting  the  literal  expressions 
of  Holy  Writ,  they  themselves,  when  urged,  cannot 
but  admit.  But  they  plead  the  paradoxical  character 
attaching,  as  they  conceive,  to  the  notion  of  a  vicari- 
ous atonement  as  their  justification.     Let  them,  then, 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


175 


at  least,  be  candid,  and  state  paradox  against  paradox. 
Let  them  weigh  the  merits  and  probability  of  the 
theory  which  they  would  establish,  against  that  which 
they  would  propose  to  overthrow.  So  far  as  the 
foregoing  argument  goes,  it  is  clear  that  their  attempt 
at  explanation  is  more  perplexing  and  contradictory 
than  the  original  proposition.  In  reply,  therefore,  to 
the  arguments  of  the  Socinian,  our  conclusion  is,  that 
we  adhere  to  the  great  dogma  of  Christ's  expiatory 
atonement  as  a  necessary  superaddition  to  the  mere 

Practical  morality  of  the  Gospel ;  in  the  first  place, 
ecause  the  admission  of  that  doctrine  is  more  con- 
sistent with  the  literal  assertions  of  the  inspired  books, 
wherever  they  occur  ;  secondly,  because  it  appears  to 
be  the  one  connecting  idea  which  pervades  the  Jewish 
no  less  than  the  Christian  Scriptures ;  and,  in  the 
third  place,  because,  when  fairly  stated,  it  is  more 
satisfactory  to  our  reason,  than  any  rival  theory  built 
upon  the  assumed  effectiveness  of  human  merit.  We 
do  not,  indeed,  for  a  moment  intend  to  assert  that  the 
theory,  the  Divine  truth  of  which  we  are  now  vindi- 
cating, is  not  itself  accompanied  with  many,  and  to  us 
inexplicable,  difficulties  :  all  that  we  wish  to  be  under- 
stood as  saying  is  merely  this,  that  under  the  present 
view  of  the  subject,  the  opposite  opinion  is  per- 
plexed with  far  more  obvious  and  more  unanswera- 
able  objections. 

We  have  not,  however,  yet  done  with  the  argu- 
ment of  the  Socinian  rationalists.  Granting  that  the 
moral  theory  of  the  Gospel  affords  a  rule  of  life  too 
perfect  for  human  performance,  and,  consequently, 
admitting  as,  at  least,  a  practical  truth,  that  even  the 
holiest  individuals  will  occasionally  be  found  charge- 
able with  the  sin  of  disobedience,  still  they  urge  that 
there  are  other  modes  of  reconciliation  v/ith  God,  far 
more  consistent  with  the  purity  and  benevolence  of 
the  Divine  attributes  than  that  mysterious  one  which 
we  are  now  advocating.  Sincere  repentance,  they 
argu^  seems  to  afford  so  natural  and  reasonable  a 


176 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


i  I 


satisfaction  for  sin,  as  completely  to  preclude  us  from 
supposing  that  Providence  could  possibly  have  adopted 
so  extremely  elaborate  and  painful  a  process  of  recon- 
ciliation as  that  now  supposed,  where  the  same  end 
might  at  once  have  been  arrived  at  hy  far  easier, 
and  as  it  would  seem  to  our  limited  judgment,  less 
objectionable  means.  There,  is,  we  readily  concede, 
much  plausibility,  and,  to  those  who  are  content  to 
form  their  permanent  opinions  from  their  more  ob- 
vious prima  facie  impressions,  we  will  add,  much 
appearance  of  probability  in  this  statement :  but,  at 
the  same  time,  we  are  satisfied  that,  when  duly  ex- 
amined, it  will  be  found  to  be  no  less  untenable  and 
unsatisfactory  than  the  one  which  w^e  have  already 
discussed  in  the  preceding  pages.  Without  dwelling 
upon  the  fact  of  the  probably  extreme  rarity,  we  might, 
perhaps,  say  impossibility,  of  any  sincere  repentance 
entirely  uninfluenced  by  the  fear  of  future  punishment, 
and  such  other  external  motives  as  would  materially 
deduct  from  its  intrinsic  desert ;  but  allowing  their 
fullest  possible  value  to  such  sentiments  of  contrition 
as  our  nature  in  its  purest  moments  may  be  supposed 
capable  of  feeling,  still  we  can  trace  nothing  in  such 
a  state  of  mind  which  would,  in  the  slightest  degree, 
justify  us  in  cherishing,  on  that  account,  such  exalted 
hopes  respecting  our  future  destination  as  the  cove- 
nant of  the  Gospel  warrants  in  the  case  of  those  who 
really  adopt  it  as  their  only  means  of  salvation.  The 
utmost  value  which  can  fairly  be  attributed  to  repent- 
ance is,  after  all,  of  a  negative,  not  of  a  positive, 
character.  It  may,  perhaps,  indeed,  should  it  not 
happen  through  the  admixture  of  human  infirmity  to 
be  of  that  equivocal  kind  which  itself  requires  to  be 
repented  of,  replace  us  in  a  situation  equivalent  with 
that  of  the  innocence  from  which  we  have  strayed. 
But  the  very  nature  of  the  case  here  appears  to  draw 
the  boundary  line  which  limits  our  admission.  It 
may,  in  the  arrangements  of  the  Divine  mercy,  cancel 
the  penalties  attached  to  disobedience,  and  thus  save 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


177 


US  from  punishment ;  but  under  no  probable  supposi- 
tion can  it  elevate  itself  into  actual  merit.     David, 
we  can  readily  conceive,  ceased,  in  consequence  of 
the  sincerity  of  his  contrition,  to  be  a  murderer  and 
adulterer  in  the  sight  of  God,  but  we  cannot  suppose 
also  that  he  therefore  stood  higher  in  the  favour  of 
his  Maker  than  he  would  have  done  had  he  never 
sinned  in  that  manner  at  all.     The  object  of  a  broken 
and  repentant  spirit  is  to  solicit  an  amnesty,  not  to 
earn  a  reward.      Its  inadequacy,  therefore,  to  serve 
as  a  qualification  to  fit  us  for  sharing  the  incopceiv- 
able  joys  prepared  for  the  souls  of  just  men  made 
perfect,  is  obvious.      For  such  a  qualification,  if  it 
exist  any  where,  we  must  look  beyond  the  limits  of 
human  nature,  and  of  mere  mortal  excellence,  for 
assuredly  it  is  not  to  be  found  within  that  line.     But 
if  our  appeal  must  be  to  external  resources,  it  would 
be  difficult  to  show  in  what  consists  the  objection  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  expiation  for  sin  purchased  by  the 
merits  and  sufferings  of  Christ,  as  taught  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures ;  or  rather,  it  would  be  difficult  to  point 
out  any  other  possible  means  of  reconciliation,  which, 
so  far  as  human  reason  can  venture  to  judge,  would 
seem  so  completely  adequate  to  meet  the  exigency  of 
the  case  in  question.     Such,  then,  appears  to  be  the 
value  of  the  argument  which  has  been  so  confidently 
advanced  respecting   the   suflSciency  of  repentance 
alone,  as  a  means  of  effective  righteousness,  and  for 
the  purpose  of  withdrawing  our  hope  from  him,  "  who, 
being  made  perfect,  became  the  author  of  salvation 
unto  all  them  that  obey  him." 

Let  us^hen  pass  on  to  the  next  assumption,  by  the 
aid  of  which  the  impugners  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
atonement  imagine  that  they  can  prove  that  myste- 
rious arrangement  to  be  an  unnecessary,  and,  there- 
fore, an  improbable  dispensation  in  the  workings  of 
Providence.  Admitting  the  defectiveness  of  all  human 
works  on  the  score  of  merit,  and  the  inadequacy  of 
mere  repentance  to  do  more  than  to  avert  the  penalties 


178 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


:i 


of  misconduct,  still  it  is  asked,  may  not  God,  of  his 
own  grace  and   free  will,  consistently  bestow   the 
rewards  of  heaven  upon  such  portions  of  mankmd,  as 
by  the  comparative  excellence  of  their  conduct  may 
have  approached  most  nearly  to  the  standard  ot  abso- 
lute perfection  ?     Why  should  Divine  wisdom  prefer 
the  circuitous  to  the  shorter  and  easier  road  to  his 
object,  where  the  ultimate  destination  is  in  both  cases 
the  same?     The  first  and  fittest  answer  to  such  an 
argument  is  still  that  which  takes  shelter  in  human 
ignorance,  and  presumes  not  to  pronounce  upon  what 
iSav,  or  what  may  not,  be  compatible  with  the  views 
of  the  Creator  of  the  universe.     If,  however,  we  are 
called  upon  to  reply  to  this  statement  of  the  question, 
we  need  not  hesitate  for  a  moment  in  asserting  that 
all  which  we  can  venture  to  surmise  as  probable  on 
these  mysterious  topics  must  be  grounded  upon  our 
own  experience  of  the  acknowledged  order  of  thmgs, 
and  that,  building  upon  the  data  supplied  by  that 
experience,  we  conceive  the  direct  presumption  in 
in  this  case  to  be  in  favour  of  what  we  may  main- 
tain  to  be  the  palpable  scriptural  doctrine.     It  we 
can  assume  it  as  probable,  that  the  Almighty  Judge 
will,  in  his  future  award  of  our  eternal  allotment, 
proceed  by  any  other  than  the  inflexible  rule  of  retri- 
bution,  and  make  our  salvation  depend  rather  upon  a 
gratuitous  act  of  amnesty  than  upon  the  strict  observ- 
ance of  some  wisely  arranged  system,  there  seenis  to 
be  no  assignable  reason  why  we  should  have  be^en 
placed  in  this  world  of  probation  at  all :  and  why 
without  incurring  the  risk  of  possible  failure,  and 
without  any  reference  to  our  moral  exertions,  we 
should  not  at  once  have  had  our  allotment  oHieavenly 
blessedness  from  the  very  commencement  of  our  exist- 
ence.     Now  it  is  certain  that  God  has  not  taken  this 
course  with  us  up  to  the  present  moment ;  it  is,  there- 
fore ar<'uing  in  the  very  teeth  of  positive  experience 
to  assume  that  he  will  pursue  it  in  his  dealings  with 
us  hereafter.    We  are  sure,  as  we  are  of  the  tact  ot 


4 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


179 


our  own  existence,  that  he  has  placed  us  for  the  pres- 
ent in  a  state  of  trial.  The  inference,  therefore,  is 
direct,  that  upon  that  trial  must,  in  some  degree, 
depend  our  ultimate  destination.  And  yet  the  rigor- 
ous enforcement  of  a  retributive  rule  would  obviously, 
under  the  actual  degraded  circumstances  of  human 
nature,  be  attended  with  the  most  fearful  result.  "If 
thou,  Lord!  wilt  be  extreme  to  mark  what  is  done 
amiss,  O  Lord,  who  may  abide  it  ?"  We  see  no  pos- 
sible escape  from  this  dilemma,  excepting  in  the  hope 
of  some  auxiliary  arrangement,  which,  whilst  it  will 
stamp  every  deviation  from  the  rule  of  right  with  the 
severest  moral  reprobation,  may  in  crushing  the 
offence  spare  the  offender.  Here  again,  then,  the 
doctrine  of  Christ's  atonement  affords  the  only  seem- 
ing solution  of  the  difficulty.  In  asserting  thus  much, 
We  do  not  pretend  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  startling 
impression  produced  upon  our  minds  by  the  first 
exposition  of  the  doctrine  of  a  vicarious  sacrifice  for 
sin  ;  but  still  we  are  deliberately  convinced,  that  so 
far  as  we  can  see  our  way  through  the  maze  of  con- 
flicting probabilities  and  improbabilities,  which  beset 
the  questions  of  theology,  the  adoption  of  the  literal 
interpretation  of  Scripture  on  this  occasion  as  the 
true  one,  is  the  theory  which  best  accords  with  our 
most  reasonable  assumptions  respecting  the  Divine 


arrangements. 


It  has,  however,  been  repeatedly  asserted  that  the 
doctrine  of  Christ's  atonement  cannot  possibly  be  true, 
because  its  obvious  tendency  is  to  make  men  more 
prone  to  commit  sin,  in  proportion  as  it  removes  the 
apprehension  of  subsequent  punishment.  This,  un- 
doubtedly, is  a  grave  charge,  and  if  well  founded 
would  he  fatal  to  the  notion,  that  such  a  dispensation 
could  really  proceed  from  the  pure  source  of  Divine 
holiness.  Plausible,  however,  as  this  assertion  may 
seem,  it  scarcely  need  to  be  remarked  to  any  person 
tolerably  acquainted  with  the  real  tenor  of  Scripture, 
and  not  deriving  his  opinions  at  second  hand  from  the 


:..'.jutt  ^TOt jBKiii^^L  ......:^  ^. J  ........  .^-^  .-.::. 


180 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


partial  statements  of  others,  how  totally  remote  this 
allegation  is  from  the  real  truth.     If  any  one  event, 
among  all  the  mysterious  dealings  of  God's  Provi- 
dence, could  more  than  any  other  mark  his  entire  and 
deep  ahomination  of  sin,  it  is  that,  that  he  has  not 
thought  the  personal  sufferings  of  his  only  begotten  Son 
too  high  a  price  to  pay  for  its  expiation.     Startled  as 
we  may  be  at  the  awful  nature  of  the  sacrifice,  there 
is  no  escaping  from  the  inference  that,  granting  the 
reality  of  the  fact,  nothing  can  be  more  irreconcilable 
with  the  purity  of  the  Divine  mind  than  acts  of  wick- 
edness in  his  intellectual  creatures.     If,  then,  he  has 
adopted  this  stupendous  mode  of  displaying  his  ab- 
horrence of  sin,  it  is  evident  that  the   very  means 
which  were  intended  by  him  to  purge  away  the  pol- 
lution  introduced  by  it  cannot,  without  the  most 
heinous  blasphemy,  be  supposed  to  operate  positively 
towards  its  encouragement.     The  truth,  in  reality,  is 
entirely  on  the  opposite  side.      The  doctrine  of  the 
atonement,  to  those  who  apprehend  it  rightly,  so  far 
from  relaxing  the  obligations  of  morality,  is,  on  the 
contrary,  the  source  of  a  great  variety  of  virtues,  of 
which  not  only  would  our  nature  be  otherwise  inca- 
pable, but  of  which  it  could  not  even  conceive  the 
idea.     And  to  this  single  fact,  that  it  vastly  enlarges 
our  original  capability  of  moral  improvement  by  the 
holier  motives  and  the  sublimer  views  which  it  incul- 
cates, we  may  confidently  appeal,  as  a  proof  that  it 
has  its  foundation  in  truth  ;  it  being  impossible  to 
imagine  that  the  faculties  of  either  the  head  or  the 
heart  could  be  permanently  amended  by  a  supersti- 
tious fiction,  or  an  impious  falsehood.     There  is  cer- 
tainly no  one  dogma  of  revelation  so  entirely  calcu- 
lated to  sober  every  feeling  of  arrogance  respecting 
our  own  deserts; — to  sink  us  in  the  deepest  humilia- 
tion from  the  recollection  that  our  sins  have  all  of 
them  respectively  had  their  share  in  producing  the 
fearful  necessity  of  this  great  sacrifice ; — to  teach  us 
to  look  with  commiseration  upon  the  infirmities  of 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


181 


others,  from  the  recollection  that  we  ourselves  are 
common  criminals  together  with  them  in  the  sight 
of  our  Maker  ;  to  impress  us  with  a  solemn  conviction 
of  the  duty  of  extending  to  the  offences  committed 
against  our  own  persons  that  mercy  which  we  so 
anxiously  implore  at  the  hands  of  the  Almighty ; — 
and  to  fill  us  with  the  warmest  sentiments  of  grati- 
tude for  the  immensity  of  the  Divine  goodness  dis- 
played in  so  remarkable  a  manner,  as  this  article  of 
our  belief  which  we  are  in  the  daily  habit  of  hearing 
vilified  and  misrepresented.  Let  it  be  observedj 
moreover,  that  we  may  appeal  also  to  one  of  the 
most  universal  and  most  deep  rooted  moral  instincts 
of  human  nature  in  confirmation  of  the  same  doc- 
trine. The  general  prevalence  even  of  the  grossest 
abuse  of  a  principle  is  justly  considered  by  the  sound* 
est  philosophers  as  confirmatory  of  the  existence  and 
of  the  reasonableness  of  the  principle  itself.  Now 
the  mortifications  of  asceticism,  which  have  formed 
so  large  a  proportion  of  almost  every  modification  of 
religion  in  all  ages,  from  the  human  sacrifices  of  the 
idolatrous  Canaanites,  and  the  self-inflictions  of  the 
Fakirs  and  Brahmins  of  the  East,  to  the  purgatorial 
fires  of  the  Platonists  and  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  are 
all  pregnant  with  proof  that  the  theory  of  an  expiation 
for  sin,  under  some  modification  or  other,  is  natural 
to  the  mind  of  man.  Once  admit  that  any  tendency 
of  the  heart  and  understanding  is  nearly  coextensive 
with  the  whole  human  race,  and  we  may  safely  lay 
it  down  as  a  general  rule,  that  a  theory  which  asserts 
the  reality  of  the  principle  as  a  legitimate  law  of 
Providence,  and  which  only  limits  the  abuse  to  which, 
from  the  weakness  of  our  intellect^  it  were  otherwise 
prone,  is  much  more  likely  to  be  the  true  one  than 
that  which  would  explain  it  away  altogether.  Thus, 
the  very  abominations  of  idolatry,  as  it  is  found  among 
the  most  savage  tribes,  afford  a  strong  confirmation 
of  the  assertion  that  religion  is  natural  to  the  human 
reason ;  and  the  fantastic  terrors  of  superstition  are 

IG 


182 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


183 


only  a  perversion  of  ihe  great  truth,  that  there  is  a 
retributive  Being,  who  will  one  day  judge  the  world 
in  righteousness.  Why,  then,  may  we  not  take  a 
lesson  from  the  pertinacious  principle  of  monkery* 
itself,  which  assumes  that  moral  guilt  can  be  com- 
pletely cancelled  only  by  suffering  in  some  shape  or 
other,  and  admit  that  it  is  right  in  its  theory,  though 
it  is  mischievously  wrong  in  its  application?  If  we 
will  not  be  content  without  the  why  and  the  wherefore 
in  any  of  our  religious  opinions,  it  is  not  the  doctrine 

•  Nothin*'  more  strongly  marks  the  instinctive  pertinacity  with  which 
the  human^mind  clinirs  to  the  theory  of  the  expiation  of  sm  by  the  means 
of  corporeal  inflictions  than  the  fact  that  the  Church  of  Rome,  even  while 
acknowledsrin?  the  all-sufticient  sacrifice  of  Christ,  has  thought  fit  to  assert 
as  equally  necessary  articles  of  belief  the  doctrine  of  purgatory  and  that 
of  ascetic  mortifications.    The  following  melancholy  anecdote,  related  by 
Huei,  the  accomplished  Bishop  of  Avranches,  res[)eciing  one  of  his  own 
Bisters,  atfords  a  singular  illustration  of  the  strength  of  this  feeling,  and 
the  friditful  absurdity  and  misery  to  which  it  may  lead  when  inisdirected 
from  its  legitimate  object :— "  Ce  fut-lA  (au  monaytere  de  Sainie  Cro.x)  que 
cetie  iennefillerenoncant  au  monde,  seconsacraa  Dieu,  el  fulsi  p6n^ir6e 
de  son  amour,  que  pour  se  rendre  plus  agr6able  ik  ses  yeux,  s'abandonnant 
bien  plus  a  son  z^le  qu'aux  cousjmIs  de  sea  directeurs,  clle  chercha  des 
mortifications  nouvelles;  les  pratiques  ordinaires  no  lui  semblant  pas 
remplir  toute   I'^tendue  du  desir  qu'elle  avoit  de    souffnr  pour  Dieu  ; 
Bachant  d'aillcurs,  que  des  i^aints  inspires  de  Dieu  avoient  priaquelquefoia 
des  routes  ecartees  ]xnir  s'avaiicer  dans  les  voies  du  ciel.     Ayant  oui  dire 
qu'une  extrfme  soif  4ioit  une  des  plus  grandes  peines  que  la  nature  pOl 
supporter,  elle  resolut  de  s'abstenir  entierement  de  b<>ire.      Pour  garder 
le  secret  sur  cet  Strange  desscin,  elle  renversoit  adroitement  sous  la  table 
du  refectoir  la  portion  de  breuvase  qu'on  lui  avoit  servie.    Cette  conduite 
lie  pouvuit  pas  aller  loin,  el  la  nature  succoinba  bieni6t  a  une  si  terrible 
^ureuve;  son  t«^inperariient  fut  enti^rement  ruin^;  unites  les  parties  de 
Bon  corps  fureiit  troublees  dans  leurs  fonciions,  et  sa  peau  fut  si  br016e 
qu'elle  devoini  noire  el  s6che  comme  un  parcheinin.      Les  m^lecins  A 
qu'il  fallut  avoir  recours,  ne  iwuvoient  deviner  la  cause  des  ^trangea 
Bvmptdmes  qu'ils  remarquoiant,  et   ils  ne  la  connurent  que  quand  la 
malade  fut  oblie^e,  par  I'autorit^  dc  ses  sup^ri^urs,  et  par  les  devoirs  de 
Ba  conscience,  de  leur  decouviir  le  niysieie.      Mais  elle  le  decouvrit, 
lorsque  le  inal  ^toitsans  rem6de,  et  peu  de  jours  avant  sa  mort.    Ce  fut 
alorsqu'en  rendant  compiede  sa  conduite  et  de  ses  mortifications,  elle  dit 
qu'un  jour  dans  la  cruelle  alteration  qu'elle  senioit,  voyant  un  porceau  se 
vauuer  dans  la  boue,  ei  avaler  a  pleine  g(»rgc  I'eau  m^Iee  avec  la  faiige, 
clle  lui  portoit  envie,  etsouhaitoit  de  pouvoir  prendre  part  a  cette  boisson. 
Dieu  avoit  doue  cette  sainte  fiUe  de  rares  talens.     Elle  avoit  un  esprit 
traiiscendani,  «tc."    Ought  we  not  to  cherish  with  respect  and  gratitude 
a  rtootrine  of  our  faith  which  gives  to  these  powerful  and  natural  feelings 
their  prop<'r  direction,  and  erects  into  the  sublimest  devotional  fervour  of  a 
graujUil  and  humble  heart  principles  which,  under  the  operation  of  an 
Ul-regulatbd  judgment,  would  lead  only  to  miswry  and  degradation? 


d*  Christ's  atonement  only  which  will  be  erased  from 
our  rule  of  faith ;  but  every  article  of  our  belief,  not 
excepting  those  of  natural  religion  itself,  will  succes- 
sively disappear,  till  the  whole  superficies  of  our  moral 
character  will,  eventually,  become  one  entire  blank. 
The  more,  then,  we  examine  this  first  and  main  pro- 
position of  Christianity,  the  more  deeply  shall  we  find 
its  roots  to  be  fixed,  not  merely  in  the  obvious  phrase- 
ology, of  the  sacred  writings,  and  in  the  general  con- 
sistency of  revelation  with  itself,  but  in  the  wants, 
and  tendencies,  and  instinctive  aspirations  of  our 
whole  spiritual  constitution.  We  find  it  to  be  accord- 
ant with  our  nature  in  its  present  position,  and  the 
inference  is  inevitable,  that  it  forms  an  integral  por- 
tion of  the  arrangements  of  Providence,  however 
inadequate  our  understanding  maybe  to  discover  why 
such  was  the  peculiar  mode  by  which  our  Creator 
thought  fit  to  work  out  the  eventual  happiness  of  his 
CTcitures 

Finally,  it  maybe  observed  that  this  fundamental 
dogma  of  the  Christian  dispensation  exactly  tallies 
and  harmonizes  with  w^hat  we  read,  as  having  con- 
stituted the  first  recorded  event  of  revealed  religion  in 
the  Old  Testament :  namely,  the  corruption  of  the 
whole  human  race  by  the  sin  of  Adam.  If  there  is 
any  thing  repugnant  to  our  moral  notions  in  the  idea 
of  the  communication  of  sin  from  one  individual  to 
many,  and  such  must  be  admitted  to  be  the  first 
impression  conveyed  by  a  hasty  glance  upon  this 
mysterious  topic,  it  at  least  affords  some  solution  of 
our  perplexity,  if  w^e  are  bound,  also,  by  the  self-same 
authority,  to  admit  that  a  parallel  course  of  arrange- 
ment which  permitted  the  introduction  of  the  disease, 
contrived  by  an  exactly  similar  process  to  accomplish 
the  cure.  If  we  grant  the  truth  of  the  former  of  these 
recorded  events,  it  seems  impossible  to  withhold  our 
assent  as  to  the  reality  of  the  latter.  And  such  is  the 
view  taken  of  the  subject  by  St.  Paul  in  his  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  where  he  cogently  argues  that  if  the 


184 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


185 


li 


methods  of  the  Divine  government  could  allow  sin 
and  death  to  spread  over  the  whole  human  race 
through  the  disobedience  of  one,  much  more  may  we 
be  assured  that  it  cannot  be  incompatible  with  the 
dispensations  of  the  merciful  Father  of  the  human 
race  to  permit  a  coextensive  system  of  reconciliation 
to  be  communicated  to  mankind  through  the  imputed 
righteousness  of  one. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Of  the  Divinity  of  Christ. 

The  doctrine  of  the  divinity  of  our  blessed  Saviour 
appears  naturally,  even  were  the  express  affirmatory 
declarations  of  Scripture  out  of  the  question,  to  grow 
out  of  that  of  his  satisfactory  atonement  for  the  sins 
of  mankind.  Without  presuming  to  speculate  largely 
upon  the  internal  probability  of  these  transcendental 
problems,  we  may,  perhaps,  with  all  humility,  venture 
to  observe  thus  much;  that  granting  the  reality  of 
that  expiatory  sacrifice,  there  would  seem  to  be  some- 
thing less  inconsistent  with  our  first  natural  impres- 
sions, in  the  idea  of  the  Deity,  himself  submitting, 
from  a  principle  of  mercy,  to  pay  a  penalty  for  the  sins 
of  mankind  in  his  own  person,  than  in  that  of  his 
subjecting  one  of  his  own  innocent  creatures  to  pun- 
ishment for  the  sake  of  other  creatures  confessedly 
guilty.  It  also  seems  difficult  to  imagine  that  the 
expiation  afforded  by  any  finite  being  could  be  so 
extensive  in  its  effects  as  that  of  Christ  is  stated  by 
revelation  to  be.  Arguments,  indeed,  of  this  descrip- 
tion ill  become  the  spirit  of  diffidence  with  which  it 
behoves  creatures  like  ourselves  to  approach  to  the 
contemplation  of  the  writings  of  infinity.  They  are, 
therefore,  adduced  in  this  place  solely  and  merely  for 
the  purpose,  not  of  throwing  light  upon  what  is  cou«r 


i 


fessedly  inexplicable,  but  of  meeting  the  conflicting 
assertions  of  those,  who,  building  their  arguments 
upon  the  presumed  conclusions  of  their  own  intellect, 
have  assailed  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  divinity  as  too 
palpably  improbable  to  be  admitted  by  rational  beings 
under  the  guarantee  of  any  external  testimony  what- 
ever. Our  wish  is  only  to  balance  assumption  against 
assumption,  and  to  repel  the  self-complacent  opinion 
of  the  followers  of  Socinus,  that,  however  the  letter 
of  Scripture  may  be  against  them,  its  spirit  and  sound 
reason  are  for  them.  Within  these  limits,  and  on 
this  defensive  principle  exclusively,  can  these  high 
topics  afford  matter  for  justifiable  discussion.  The 
real  appeal  of  every  mind,  duly  sensible  of  its  own 
weakness,  must,  after  all,  be  to  what  it  finds  expressly 
written  ;  and  we  have  no  hesitation  in  asserting,  that 
we  do  find  the  doctrine  now  alluded  to  stated  in  holy 
writ,  with  a  decision  and  clearness  of  expression, 
which,  if  we  admit  the  authenticity  of  the  various 
passages  in  which  it  occurs,  is  at  once  decisive  of  the 
fact  in  question. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Of  Sanctijication  by  tlie  Holy  Spirit. 

When  Scripture  inculcates  the  necessity  of  the 
sanctification  of  the  human  soul,  by  the  strengthen- 
ing aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  it  adds  another  harmoni- 
zing and  consistent  truth  to  the  great  and  concurrent 
doctrine  of  Christ's  atonement.  It  has  already  been 
observed,  that,  although  our  Redeemer  came  to  recon- 
cile  God  to  man  by  annulling  the  penalties  otherwise 
consequent  upon  the  inevitable  infirmities  ot  our 
nature,  it  were  to  derive  a  blasphemous  conclusion 
from  that  doctrine,  were  we  to  assert  that  its  practical 
effect  could  possibly  be  that  of  relaxing  prospectively 


t  t1! 


fl 


186 


CONSISTENCY   OF    REVELATION 


the  obligations  of  morality,  or  of  rendering  sin  lesi 
offensive  to  the  Divine  nature  than  it  had  previously 
been.     On  the  contrary,  nothing,  as  we  have  shown, 
could  more  completely  demonstrate  the  imperative 
duty  imposed  upon  us  of  pursuing  all  attainable  holi- 
ness by  every  possible  means,  than  the  tremendous 
cost  which  revelation  teaches  us  has  already  been 
incurred  in  consequence  of  man's  past  disobedience. 
Rightly  considered,  then,  the  satisfaction  afforded  to 
the  inflexible  principle  of  moral  retribution,  by  the 
expiatory  merits  of  Christ,  is  one  solemn  obligation 
the  more  to  a  course  of  undeviating  obedience.     But 
if  the  corruption  of  the  human  heart  continues  after 
the  promulgation  of  the  Gospel  covenant  precisely 
what  it  was  before  that  important  epoch,  the  subse- 
quent history  of  mankind  would  probably  be  little 
more  than  that  of  a  repetition  of  the  same  follies  and 
crimes  which  have  already  spread   such  extensive 
devastation  over  the  works  of  the  Creator.  The  same 
causes  would  naturally  produce  the  same  effects ;  and, 
therefore,  whatever  might  be  beheved  of  the  future 
destination  of  man  in  another  life,  as  a  consequence 
of  the  disarming  of  the  Divine  justice,   his  moral 
character  in  this  world  would  seem  to  derive  little 
apparent  benefit  from  the  institution  of  a  purer  code 
of  morality  than  that  which  he  has  already  so  auda* 
ciously  violated.  Now  the  provision  which  Scripture 
assures  us  has  throug!)  the  medium  of  the  Gospel 
dispensation,  been  made  for  us  in  this  point,  namely, 
with  reference  to  the  actual   improvement  of  our 
^spiritual  nature  in  this  world,  appears  exactly  calcu- 
lated to  meet  this  difficulty.     The  nearer  any  practi- 
cal rule  of  life  approaches  toward  the  standard  of  per* 
fection,  the  greater  will,  of  course,  be  the  degree  of 
moral  exertion  and  self-possession  necessary  for  the 
accomplishment  of  the  task  which  it  imposes.     The 
provisions  made  for  us  by  revelation  here  again  are 
remarkable  for  their  admirable  adaption  to  the  wants 
oC  our  nature.  In  the  OldXjestament,  and  in  the  bookjs 


II 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


187 


of  the  Levitical  law  more  especially,  we  find  little 
allusion  to  any  other  mode  of  justification  than  that  of 
ritual  observances ;  and  with  regard  to  the  sanctifica- 
tion  of  the  soul,  in  like  manner  the  natural  strength 
of  the  human  heart  seems  to  be  not  unfrequently 
appealed  to,  as  possessing,  within  itself,  the  means  of 
obedience.  In  proportion,  indeed,  as  the  Jewish 
Scriptures  draw  towards  their  close,  the  principles 
which  they  inculcate  gradually  assume,  in  all  respects, 
a  more  evangelical  character.  Other  and  better  expia- 
tions than  those  prescribed  by  Moses  begin  to  be  anti- 
cipated, and  the  accompanying  Christian  doctrine,  of 
the  assistance  afforded  to  the  active  powers  of  man 
by  the  Divine  grace,  to  be  more  prominently  asserted. 
The  full  and  complete  developement  of  this  latter 
doctrine,  however,  like  the  former  one  of  the  atone- 
ment af  Christ,  is  reserved  for  the  Gospel  dispensation 
to  inculcate.  When,  accordingly,  we  turn  from  the 
Old  to  the  New  Testament,  we  there  find  the  almost 
entire  moral  helplessness  of  our  nature  laid  down, 
from  first  to  last  as  a  fundamental  maxim.  The 
reward  of  our  obedience,  and  the  means  of  our  obe- 
dience, are  both  described  as  the  unbought  gift  of 
God.  These  are  the  two  concurrent  truths  upon  which 
the  whole  structure  of  Christianity  is  built.  The  very 
best  actions  of  which  we  are  capable  have  all  of  them 
a  taint  of  sin,  and,  therefore,  in  all  we  do,  we  stand  in 
need  of  an  atonement  to  make  our  imperfect  actions 
acceptable  with  our  Maker: — the  thoughts  of  our 
hearts  are  far  gone  from  righteousness,  and  accord- 
ingly we  cannot  elevate  them  to  spiritual  things,  we 
cannot  apprehend  nor  love  the  new  duties  we  are 
called  upon  to  perform,  but  through  the  co-operating 
Divine  assistance.  It  is  thus  that  the  ruling  principle 
of  the  Gospel  is  the  direct  reverse  of  that  which 
formed  the  basis  of  heathen,  and  in  great  measure  of 
Jewish  virtue.  The  highest  notions  of  moral  excel- 
lence entertained  by  the  philosophers  of  C  reece  and 
Rome  were  those  of  human  nature  pondering  with 


188 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


189 


haughty  self-complacence  upon  its  own  comparative 
refinement,  and  looking  proudly  down  upon  the  herd 
of  common  beings  still  immersed  in  the  follies  and 
vices  of  ignorance.  The  virtue  of  the  good  man  of 
the  Old  Testament  is  not,  indeed,  of  this  offensively 
proud  character,  yet  even  there  we  occasionally  meet 
with  an  assumption  of  merit  by  individuals,  which, 
however  accordant  with  the  then  acknowledged 
standard  of  excellence,  forms  an  unseemly  contrast 
with  the  meek  principles  of  the  religion  of  Christ. 
Of  this  latter  dispensation,  unmixed  humility  is  the 
great,  it  may  almost  be  said  to  be  the  only,  rule  of 
conduct.  "  Blessed  ar€  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven."  Such  were  the  words  with 
which  our  Redeemer  opened  his  commission,  and  to 
the  same  purport  was  his  final  parting  valediction. 
It  is  manifest,  then,  that  any  claim  advanced  by 
human  beings  on  the  score  of  actual  desert  to  the 
approbation  of  the  Deity  and  the  joys  of  heaven  are 
at  complete  variance  with  the  Christian  system.  The 
area  of  duty  which  is  committed  to  the  superintend- 
ence of  each  of  us  by  the  sublime  code  of  evangeli- 
cal morals  is  confessedly  larger  than  our  scanty  pow- 
ers can  occupy.  In  this  state  of  original  helplessness, 
accordingly,  one  resource  only  remains  open  to  us: 
to  throw  ourselves,  with  all  our  infirmities,  upon  the 
Divine  help.  To  supplicate  our  Maker  that  he  will, 
in  his  mercy,  enable  us  to  do  that  which  from  our  own 
natural  powers  we  are  unable  to  perform.  This  is 
what  the  dictates  of  plain  reason  would  tell  us  is  the 
proper  course  to  be  pursued ;  it  is  also  what  the  Gos- 
pel expressly  urges  us  to  do,  whilst,  at  the  same  time, 
it  assures  us,  that  they  who  ask  for  the  aid  of  God's 
strengthening  Spirit  shall  never  ask  in  vain.  It  is 
thus,  that  in  the  spiritual  world  revealed  to  us  by  the 
Gospel,  precisely  as  in  the  natural  world,  the  further 
and  the  closer  we  examine,  the  more  palpably  we  find 
God  to  be  all  in  all.  Our  first  glance  at  the  works  of 
the  creation  presents  to  us  the  idea  of  a  series  of 


efficient  secondary  causes  all  working  hy  their  own 
agency  their  respective  results.  As  we  advance  tur- 
ther  we  find  the  existence  of  those  presumed  causes 
inadequate  to  account  for  the  stupendous  results 
which  we  had  attributed  to  them,  and  are  compelled 
to  acknowledge  the  finger  of  the  Creator  as  the  mam 
directin*'  principle.  So  likewise  in  the  contemplation 
of  the  altounding  problems  of  theology,  in  proportion 
as  our  knowledge  of  the  arrangements  of  Providence 
dilates,  our  sense  of  our  own  importance  dwindles, 
till  it  shrinks  actually  into  nothing.  In  every  thing, 
in  our  seeming  strength  no  less  than  in  our  weakness, 
we  feel  the  necessity  of  the  Divine  support. 

Now,  it  is  self-evident,  that  if  by  the  natural  pow- 
ers  of  the  understanding  we  could  work  our  way  from 
the  first  and  simplest  up  to  the  highest  and  most 
abstruse  principles  of  religious  morality,  this  conclu- 
sion, which  is  precisely  that  of  Christianity,  the  dis- 
coverv  of  this  golden  chain,  which  in  all  things  con- 
nects  man  indissolubly  with  his  Maker,  is  what  we 
should  eventually  arrive  at.     We  know,  ij^^eed  ex- 
perimentally,  that  these  truths  are  placed  too  high 
for  human  attainment  by  the  mere  natural  powers  ot 
the  intellect,  because  we  know  that  their  first  disco- 
verv  was  contemporaneous  with  the  promulgation  ot 
Christianity:  hut  still,  looking  back  upon  them   as 
matters  of  revelation,  we  cannot  but  perceive  their 
entire  consistency,  and  feel  that  they  are  the  points 
where  intellectual  research  ought  in  its  happiest  and 
most  illuminated  moments  to  terminate.     It  is  then, 
assuredly,  no  small  proof  of  the  internal  probability 
of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  system,  that  the  main 
propositions  which  it  asserts  are  those  to  which    he 
hi-hest  moral  research  would  lead  us  ;  and  that  the 
helps  which  it  pledges  itself  to  supply  are  exactly 
those   which   our   spiritual   wants  and  weaknesses 
would  most  earnestly  demand.     We  cannot  perform 
a  perfect  and  spotless  action  if  we  would ;  we,  there- 
fore    want  a   Redeemer ;— we  cannot  detach   our 


t 


190 


CONSISTENCY    OF   REVELATION 


With  human  reason. 


191 


w 


thoughts  from  the  ahsorbing  influence  of  wordly  mat- 
ters and  fix  them  steadily  upon  heavenly  objects  by 
any  natural  pov^rer  that  we  possess ;  and  v^e,  therefore, 
stand  equally  in  need  of  assisting  Grace. 

Both  these  objects  the  Gospel  declares  it  to  be  its 
special  purpose  to  obtain  for  us.      How  far  it  has 
redeemed  its  pledge,  virith  regard  to  the  former,  must 
ever  in  this  life  be  a  mere  matter  of  faith,  building  its 
conclusions  upon  what  we  conceive  to  be  the  certainty 
of  the  Divine   promises,  the  reasonableness  of  the 
object,  and  our  urgent  need  of  it.     But  of  the  latter, 
if  founded  in  truth,  we  ought  to  have  experimental 
proof  in  this  life  ;  because  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  if 
real,  ought  to  have  a  perceptible  influence  on  our  con- 
duct, and  to  place  a  visible  and  plain  mark  of  distinc- 
tion between  those  whom  Scripture  designates  as  the 
children  of  this  world,  and  those  to  whom  it  gives 
the  appellation  of  children   of  light.      Does,  then, 
positive  experience  serve  to  confirm  this  undoubted 
doctrine  of  revelation  ?      Do  we  find  that  our  moral 
nature  undergoes  a  change  for  the  better,  in  propor- 
tion as  we  approximate  by  faith  towards  the  terms  of 
acceptance  held  forth  to  us  by  the  Gospel  covenant  ? 
If  it  does,  then  there  ought  to  be  a  decided  difference 
nut  merely  between  the  external  actions,  but  more 
especially  in  the  whole  cast  of  mind  and  of  sentiment 
of  the  one  party  and  the  other.     Such,  undoubtedly, 
ought  to  be,  and  such,  there  can  be  little  doubt,  is 
actually  the  case.       At  the  same  time  it  must  be 
conceded,  that  the  question  does  not  admit  of  that  full 
clearness  of  proof  of  which  it  might  at  first  sight  be 
deemed  capable.     Natural  morality,  we  must  recol- 
lect, forms  an  integral  portion  of  Christianity  itself; 
but  a  man,  we  know,  may  admit  the  inferences  and 
defer  to  the  authority  of  the  former,  whilst  he  rejects 
the  latter.     He  may,  therefore,  be  capable  of  perform- 
ing actions  which  even  to  the  most  enlightened  Chris- 
tian may  appear  externally  good,  and  even  with  respect 

to  their  internal  character  may,  in  a  certain  sense, 


I 


be  admitted  to  be  soch ;  that  is  to  say,  in  such  a  degree 
at  least  as  the  inferior  and  defective  motives  from 
which  they  proceed  mav  justify  our  applying  to  them 
that  appellation .     The  purest  Christian  motives  again 
(on  which  the  character  of  our  actions  must  totally 
depend)  may  not  be,  and  in  fact  never  are,  ahyays 
equally  influential  in  the  conduct  of  the  same  indi- 
vidual at  all  limes ;  whilst,  also,  they  may  not  always, 
even  w^hen  most  sincere,  be  accompanied  by  an  uner- 
ring judgment,  or  that  delicacy  of  tact  which  recom- 
mends our  conduct  to  the  approbation  of  society.    The 
most  sincere  servant  of  Christ  may  be  ignorant,  timid, 
fearful,  and  superstitious;  he  may  have  to  sustain 
internal  struggles  which  can  never  reach  the  eye  of 
the  external  observer,  and  which  if  laid  open  to  the 
apprehension  of  others  would  only  provoke  a  smile 
of  pity  or  contempt.     Most  assuredly  it  is  not  for  the 
gross  perceptions  of  worldly  men  to  jud^e  how  much 
of  what  is  substantially  estimable  and  heroic,  m  the 
best  sense  of  the  term,  may  be  disguised  in  this  homely 
and  repulsive   attire,  and  the   due   appreciation   of 
which  must  be  reserved  for  the  equitable  and  infalli- 
ble tribunal  of  omniscience.     Certain,  at  all  events, 
it  is,  that  whilst  outward  appearances  remain  the 
same,  or  even  whilst  the  scale  of  merit  may  sometimes 
appear  to  preponderate  in  favour  of  the  less  decidedly 
religious  character,  the  view  taken  by  our  Maker, 
with  whom  the  purity  of  the  heart  is  all  in  all,  and 
tne  glitter  of  the  intellect  as  nothing,  may  be  directly 
the  reverse  of  the  world's  judgment. 

Still,  however,  though  the  mingling  shades  of 
character,  and  the  unequal  distribution  of  those  gifts 
which  recommend  man  to  society,  may  render  it  often 
difficult,  and  sometimes  impossible  for  us  to  recognise 
the  express  workings  of  the  Christian  spirit,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  those  of  the  natural  and  strictly  human 
propensities,  we  may  confidently  appeal  to  the  broad 
and  palpable  phenomena  which  distinguish  the  sin- 
cere followers  of  Christ  from  the  mere  men  of  this 


t  I 


\  h? 


192 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


world,  that  the  difference  between  them  is  not  ima- 
ginary, but  permanent  and  real.     The  whole  moral 
value  of  human  actions  depending  upon  motives,  and 
it  being  the  great  practical  object  of  Christianity  to 
supersede  almost  all  those  of  our  original  nature,  and 
to  substitute  in  their  room  others  of  a  higher  character, 
it  is  obvious  that  the  responsible  being  in  whom  this 
change  is  wrought  must,  so  far  as  his  relative  position 
with  respect  to  his  Maker  is  taken  into  consideration, 
be,  in  almost  the  literal  interpretation  of  the  words, 
a  new  creature.    His  intellectual  vision  will  be  turned 
in  a  completely  opposite  direction  from  that  of  the 
persons  whose  standard  of  conduct  is  derived  solely 
from  the  perishable  things  of  this  life.     The  same 
objects,  consequently,  as  contemplated  by  them  seve- 
rally from  different  points  of  view,  will  appear  to  him 
and  to  them  in  extremely  different  proportions.    Each 
of  them  reasoning  accurately  from  their  respective 
premises,  will  come  to  completely  contrary  conclu- 
sions, with  respect  to  the  intrinsic  value  and  the  com- 
parative innocence  of  their  several  pursuits.      Sin, 
which  to  the  coarse  and  hackneyed  feelings  of  the 
worldly  man  appears  a  necessary  part  of  his  nature, 
with  which  it  is  vain  to  struggle,  and  which  he  deems, 
after  all,  as  below  the  dignity  of  Almighty  wisdom 
to  regard  or  to  punish,  is  to  the  quick  and  susceptible 
touch  of  the  spiritually-minded  a  pollution  which  can 
be  purged  away  only  by  the  most  solemn  expiation. 
He  recollects  the  fearful  derangement  which  it  has 
already  occasioned  in  the  works  of  Providence,  and 
the  immense  ransom  which  it  has  already  cost ;  and 
whilst  he  feels  his  weakness  and  his   continually 
recurring  propensity  to  it,  as  continually  perseveres 
to  pray  for  support  against  it.     His  feelings,  accord- 
ingly, when  they  occur,  for  occur  occasionally  they 
will,  become,  in   a    certain    sense,  rather    infirmi- 
ties than  sins.      He  remembers  that  they  who  are 
born  of  God  commit  no  wilful  sin  whatever,  and  if 
a  hasty  display  of  petulance,  a  selfish  or  impure 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


193 


thought  escape  for  a  moment  from  him,  the  humilia- 
tion of  his  feelings  and  the  increased  energy  with 
which  he  supplicates  for  afresh  portion  of  the  Divine 
support,  sufficiently  vouch  for  the  heavenward  pro- 
gress which  he  is  making.  It  is  easy,  no  doubt,  to 
turn  all  these  nice  perceptions  into  ridicule,  and  to 
ask,  even  admitting  their  reality,  of  what  advantage 
they  are  to  ourselves  or  to  society.  To  the  mere 
utilitarian  of  this  world,  who  conceives  that  the  exclu- 
sive object  of  the  stupendous  scheme  of  the  universe 
is  the  production  of  a  few  personal  comforts,  and  who 
considers  the  soul  as  intended  to  cater  for  the  body, 
and  not  the  body  as  an  instrument  given  to  the  soul 
for  the  exercise  and  developement  of  its  noblest  facul- 
ties, such  an  objection  as  the  foregoing  will  appear 
decisive.  But  to  the  person  whose  mind  is  sufficiently 
enlarged  to  take  in  all  the  known  and  all  the  probable 
circumstances  of  our  compound  nature,  such  views 
will  appear  any  thing  rather  than  triffing  or  super-, 
Btitious.  It  is  true  that  human  life,  when  consi- 
dered under  the  most  encouraging  aspect,  presents  us 
only  with  the  view  of  a  hardly  contested  and  half- 
earned  victory  over  the  principle  of  corruption ;  but, 
then,  this  very  imperfect  success  is  in  itself,  if  rightly 
considered,  a  pledge  afforded  to  us  by  Providence 
that  the  allotment  of  the  Christian  is  not  confined  to 
what  we  see  of  him  here.  If  those  moral  exertions, 
to  which  the  internal  voice  of  conscience  most  elo- 
quently responds,  are  unproductive  of  any  substantial 
fruit  in  this  world,  we  can  scarcely  want  a  stronger 
proof  that  what  is  so  evidently  an  essential  part  of 
our  nature  must  be  destined  to  find  its  due  place  and 
correspondent  allotment  in  another.  Scripture  tells 
us  that  tliis  life  is  a  state  of  moral  trial.  It  is  quite 
impossible  to  imagine  any  combination  of  circum- 
stances better  calculated  for  the  promotion  of  that 
end,  if  such  be  really  its  object.  Were  this  world 
all  in  all,  we  might  naturally  expect  of  our  Maker 
that  the  faculties  with  which  we  are  endued  should 

17 


l» 


Jt  ^ 


194 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


195 


jl      \ 


be  exactly  adequate  for  the  accomplisliment  of  the 
work  which  it  would  then  he  our  sole  duty  to  per- 
form. There  would  be  a  nicely  balanced  proportion 
observed  between  our  appointed  business  and  the 
machinery  of  our  allotted  powers.  But  a  spiritual 
probation,  such  as  that  which  the  Gospel  scheme 
supposes,  in  order  to  be  complete  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  whole  of  its  purpose,  requires  that  we 
should  be  tasked  beijond  our  strength,  because  with- 
out such  a  demand  upon  us  the  full  and  entire  whole 
of  what  we  can  really  achieve  could  never  be  called 
into  action.  But  this  excess  of  trial  beyond  our 
natural  means  of  performance,  almost  presupposes, 
in  the  case  of  a  merciful  and  just  Ruler  of  the  Uni- 
verse, the  existence  of  such  external  and  occasional 
help  as,  whilst  it  would  secure  to  us  the  full  benefit 
of  the  moral  exercise,  would  at  the  same  time  inter- 
fere at  the  proper  season,  and  prevent  that  which  is 
intended  as  a  benefit  from  becoming  an  injury ;  pre- 
cisely as  a  kind  and  intelligent  parent,  vvhilsl  he 
encourages  his  children  to  the  full  exercise  of  their 
strength,  assists  them  at  the  moment  when  he  sees 
that  they  really  stand  in  need  of  his  interference. 

The  foregoing  view  of  the  question,  then,  may  be 
simply  stated  thus: — The  acknowledged  object  of 
our  existence  in  this  world  bein^  that  of  a  spiritual 
probation,  and  that  probation  being  brought  into  full 
action  by  the  imposition  of  a  task  far  exceeding  our 
natural  powers  of  performance,  the  doctrines  of 
justification  and  of  sanctification,  the  former  by  an 
external  expiation  for  sin,  the  latter  by  the  commu- 
nication of  spiritual  aid,  to  those  who  earnestly  seek 
for  it  by  prayer,  for  the  completion  of  their  appointed 
task,  appear  to  be  necessary  inferences  from  that  pri- 
mary admission.  God  having,  in  his  wisdom,  endued 
us  with  very  imperfect  capabilities  of  obedience,  calls 
us,  notwithstanding,  to  regulate  our  lives  by  an 
actually  perfect  rule  of  duty.  The  utmost  which  we 
can  do  is,  after  all,  to  fall  far  short  of  the  standard  at 


•which  we  aim ;  but  we  confidently  believe,  mean- 
while, that  the  Divine  arm  is  stretched  out  to  assist 
and  lead  us  forward  ;  and  although  the  closing  scene 
of  our  career  is  hid  from  our  view,  the   inference 
appears  certain,  that  what  is  thus  wisely  begun  will 
be  as  wisely  ended.  The  same  admitted  imperfection 
of  our  nature  exposes  us  not  only  to  the  negative 
defect  of  failure,  but  also,  as  is  too  obvious,  to  the 
positive  one  of  occasional  sin :  here,  again,  the  same 
merciful  Providence  interferes,  and  pays  for  us,  under 
the  stipulation  of  an  express  covenant,  which  we  are 
competent  to  accept  or  to  decline,  the  price  of  those 
aberrations  which,  though  referrible,  in  great  mea- 
sure, to  our  own  depravity,  may,  in  a  certain  degree, 
appear  to  follow  necessarily  from  the  inherent  cor- 
ruption of  our  minds.    Now  it  is  evident  that  this,  if 
rightly  understood,  is  any  thing  rather  than  what  it 
has  been  asserted  to  be,  an  indolent  system,  encou- 
raging us  to  throw  equally  our  moral  exertions  and 
the  responsibility  of  our  sins  upon  our  Maker.     On 
the  contrary,  as   we   cannot    without   the   grossest 
impiety,  accede  to  the  inference  of  the  Antinomian, 
who,  on  the  plea  of  the  infinite  operation  of  Christ  s 
atonement,  argues   that  he  may  now  offend   with 
impunity,  thus  making  the  most  stupendous  proot  ot 
the   deadliness   of    sin   an    encouragement    for   its 
renewed  commission;  so  we  shall  be  reasoning  as 
falsely  and  profanely,  if  we  derive  from  the  scriptural 
doctrine  of  cooperating  grace  the  inference,  that  we 
may  safely  suspend  our  own  efforts,  and  trust  for  the 
accomplishment  of  our  task  to  the  predominating  and 
irresistible  influence  of   the  Divine   Spirit.     Here, 
indeed,  we  tread  upon  the  verge  of  a  nice  and  inter- 
minable point  of  theological  metaphysics,  which  it  is 
eafer  to  decline  touching  upon  than  to  discuss.     The 
question  respecting  the  liberty  of  human  actions  is  a 
practical  one,  which  we  cannot  mistake  if  we  follow, 
to  the  best  of  our  power,  the  instinctive  guidance  ot 
our  holiest  impulses,  however  we  may  be  perplexed 


'\\ 


,'( 


,     V 


4 


196 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


whilst  viewing  it  as  a  philosophical  problem.  That 
the  obvious  purport  of  Scripture  with  reference  to 
this  mysterious  topic,  accords  with  our  own  internal 
consciousness,  and,  whether  we  really  are,  or  are  not, 
essentially  free  agents,  at  all  events  calls  upon  us  to 
act  as  though  we  were  such,  cannot  be  doubted.  In 
fact,  the  arguments  generally  alleged  in  support  of 
the  doctrine  of  necessity,  though  often  advocated  by 
sincerely  pious  and  amiable  men,  are  all  of  them 
liable  to  the  same  objections  which,  at  an  early- 
period  of  these  observations,  we  have  stated  to  attach 
to  the  plausible  but  unsubstantial  theories  of  infidelity ; 
that  is  to  say,  they  turn  away  our  attention  from 
what  we  know  experimentally  of  the  arrangements 
of  Divine  Providence,  and  rest  their  proofs  upon  a 
priori  assumption  only ;  a  mode  of  discussion  which, 
however  plausible,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark, 
is  almost  always  delusive  and  unsubstantial. 

Without,  then,  attempting  to  enter  upon  the  ex- 
amination of  the  conflicting  opinions  respecting  neces- 
sity and  free-will,  we  will  merely  venture  to  observe, 
that  if  we  will  take  into  consideration  the  moral 
purpose,  which,  so  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the 
general  context  of  revelation,  it  is  the  object  of  the 
operation  of  Divine  grace  to  accomplish  upon  the 
human  heart,  we  cannot  but  suppose  that  the  degree 
of  spiritual  aid  which  it  affords  will  necessarily  be 
such  as  would  be  compatible,  in  all  respects,  with  the 
full  liberty  of  human  actions:  in  other  words,  it  will 
be  a  cooperating  and  concurrent  help,  not  a  pre- 
dominating and  overpowering  influence.  We  do  not 
pretend  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  apparent  force  of  the 
objections  which  may  be  alleged  on  the  opposite  side. 
It  is,  we  know,  confidently  urged  by  the  advocates  of 
necessity,  that,  as  it  is  derogatory  to  the  admitted 
attributes  of  the  Deity,  that  his  interference  with 
human  actions  should  be  supposed  capable  of  being 
resisted  by  finite  beings  like  ourselves,  the  admission 
of  the  reality  of  su('h   interference   is  necessarily 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


197 


destructive  of  the  doctrine   of  man's  free  agency. 
Plausible  as  this  objection  is,  if  considered  as  an 
abstract  proposition,  we  conceive  that  it  stands  in 
need  of  no  other  refutation  than  that  of  a  practical 
appeal  to  every  circumstance  and  phenomenon  of  the 
creation  which  surrounds  us.     The  argument  upon 
which   it   rests  is,   in  fact,   nothing  more  than  an 
assumption  of  the  principle  that  all  the  works  of 
infinity  are  necessarily  themselves  infinite:  a  sup- 
position which,  if  true,  would  be  a  virtual  denial  of 
the  liberty  of  the  Divine  Being  himself,  as  it  is  also 
obviously  incompatible  with  the  fact  of  the  existence 
of  the  graduated  scale  of  subordinate  creatures,  which 
we  recognise  in  every  direction,  through  the  works 
of  Providence.   God,  we  know,  has  distributed  their 
several  faculties  to  the  different  races  of  animals  pre- 
cisely in  the  proportion  in  which  they  are  wanted  for 
their  defence  and  support,  subjecting  each  several 
gift  to   its  peculiar  modification,   and   withholding 
those  which  are   unnecessary.     Why,  then,  if  the 
limitation  of  his  own  omnipotence  is  one  of  the  most 
prominent  phenomena  which  characterize  his  crea- 
tion, must  we  necessarily  assume  that  the  gift  of  his 
assisting  grace,  the  acknowledged  object  of  which  is 
to  render  man  capable  of  effective  righteousness,  can, 
in  fact,  be  imparted  in  such  overwhelming  propor- 
tions onlv  as,  by  destroying  that  free  agency  which 
is  the  very  basis  of  morality,  would  render  all  real 
righteousness  impossible?     It  is  absurd,  we  are  told, 
to°imagine  that  man  can  cooperate  with  his  Maker  in 
the  production  of  any  given  purpose.     We  own  that 
we  do  not  see  this  absurdity,  provided  there  is  no 
implied  impossibility  in  the  idea  that  it  may  have 
been  the  will  of  our  Creator  to  endow  us  with  the 
faculty  of  free  agency.     It  is  true,  indeed,  that  that 
very  faculty  itself  must,   under  every  view  of  the 
suliject,  be  admitted  to  depend  upon  the  Divine  per- 
mission for  its  continuance;    but    this    admission 
detracts  nothing  from  the  substantial  reality  of  the 

17* 


( 


i 


I 


193 


CONSISTENCY  OF    REVELATION 


gift,  when  once  communicated.  To  deny  that  the 
Ahnighty  can  annex  liberty  of  will  and  action  to  his 
creatures,  is  in  fact  subjecting  him  to  the  same 
shackles  of  necessity  which  we  are  striving  to  im- 
pose upon  ourselves;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  we  admit 
that  he  can  do  so,  the  self-same  inference  which 
establishes  the  fact  of  his  omnipotence  and  moral 
attributes  is  equally  substantiative  of  our  own  rela- 
tive dependence  upon  him  as  accountable  beings. 
That  the  control  of  our  actions  is  in  some  degree,  at 
least,  placed  within  our  own  power,  our  instinctive 
apprehensions  and  belief,  with  the  otherwise  inexpli- 
cable phenomena  of  an  applauding  or  reproving  con- 
science, we  repeat,  unite  with  the  whole  tenor  of 
Scripture  in  uniformly  asserting.  To  such  cogency 
of  proof  on  the  one  side,  it  would  seem  perfectly 
nugatory  to  oppose  a  mere  metaphysical  and  equivo- 
cal axiom  on  the  other;  and  yet  it  is  on  this  single 
substratum  that  a  system  of  theology  has  been 
erected,  subversive,  as  at  first  sight  it  would  appear, 
of  almost  all  the  great  principles  of  Christianity,  and 
which  probably  has  failed  of  producing  very  exten- 
sive evil  only  from  the  fact  that  its  advocates  have 
frequently  counteracted  by  the  exemplary  holiness 
of  their  lives  the  pernicious  tendency  of  their  doc- 
trines. It  is  painful  to  speak  in  these  terms  of  dis- 
paragement of  the  tenets  of  a  large  body  of  Christians 
whose  mistakes,  for  such  we  believe  them  to  be,  are 
at  all  events  frequently  accompanied  by  so  much 
warmth  and  rectitude  of  principle,  and  are  the 
result  of  an  exaggerated  statement,  the  consequence 
of  a  deep  conscientious  impression,  of  a  most 
momentous  truth,  rather  than  of  any  unworthy- 
motive.  As  a  system  of  belief,  however,  we  cannot, 
and  ought  not,  to  conceal  our  opinion  that  it  is  not 
accordant  with  what  we  read  in  Scripture,  and  what 
our  instinctive  moral  sense,  that  Avitness  of  God 
within  our  own  hearts,  would  inculcate.  At  the 
same  time,  we  readily  admit,  that  if  erroneous,  it  is 


i 


WITH    HUMAN    REASON. 


199 


far  less  so  than  that  opposite  extreme  which,  by 
attempting  to  elevate  unduly  the  moral  faculties  of 
man,  would  teach  him  to  look  for  salvation  to  the 
merit  of  his  own  works,  and  to  disclaim  that  reli- 
ance upon  the  Divine  aid  Avhich  can  alone  expiate 
our  infirmities,  and  conduct  us  to  effectual  holiness. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

Of  the  practical  Tendency  of  the  Morality  of  the  Gospel,  and  of  tlte 
extraordinary  Gifts  of  the  Itoly  Spirit. 

If  then  the  preceding  remarks  are  correct,  the 
Christian  covenant  is,  of  all  the  schemes  of  theology 
and  ethics  which  have  ever  been  laid  open  to  the  ap- 
prehension of  mankind,  that  which  tends  to  elevate  our 
nature  the  most,  and  to  promote  most  largely  a  course 
of  pure  and  energetic  action  in  its  followers,  whilst  at 
the  same  time,  by  a  singularly  uniform  and  pervading 
analogy,  it  harmonizes  with  all  that  the  best  human 
philosophy  can  infer  respecting  the  presumed  arrange- 
ments of  Providence.  By  the  substitution  of  a  vica- 
rious atonement  for  sin,  it  may  seem  calculated  at 
the  first  glance  to  encourage  laxity  of  morals,  and  by 
the  necessity  of  external  spiritual  aid  which  it  asserts, 
it  may  appear  to  have  a  tendency  to  paralyze  our  own 
personal  efforts,  but,  in  proportion  as  we  examine  it 
more  and  more  nearly,  these  objections  not  only 
entirely  disappear,  but  its  real  practical  tendency  ap- 
pears to  be  directly  the  reverse  of  what  we  might 
have  hastily  supposed.  Whilst  referring  all  things 
to  the  free  grace,  and  mercy,  and  purity  of  God,  it 
promotes,  to  a  degree  perfectly  unexampled  under 
any  other  modification  of  belief,  holiness  of  heart 
and  action  in  men.  Fervent,  practical  righteous- 
ness; righteousness  which  in  its  reverential  service 
of  our  Maker  is  perfectly  analogous  with  those  feel- 
ings of  kindliness  required  of  us  toward  our  neigh- 


> 


I 


200 


CX)NSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


201 


hour ;  righteousness  which,  from  a  deep  conviction 
of  humility  and  gratitude,  looks  firmly  and  cheer- 
fully and  submissively  to  the  protection  of  a  wise 
and  bounteous  Providence,  hoping  all  things,  endur- 
ing all  things,  and  believing  all  things,  is  its  greatt 
aim  and  object.     When  that  object  is  obtained  (and 
completely  obtained  it  is  not  until  the  great  twin 
doctrines  of  justification  and  sanctificalion,  as  re- 
vealed by  Scripture,  have  become  part  and  parcel  of 
our  habitual  impressions  and  given  a  decided  charac- 
ter to  our  minds,)  human  nature  may  be  truly  said  to 
have  arrived  at  the  highest  possible  moral  elevation 
of  which  in  this  world  it  is  capable.    The  refinements 
of  science  may  add  much  to  its  external  appearance 
in  the  intercourse  of  society,  as  they  may  add  also  to 
the  utility  and  individual  comfort  of  their  respective 
possessors.      But    on    these   points    God,    we    are 
assured,   sees  not  as  man   sees.      Such  accessory 
qualities  are  after  all,  where  the  main  tendency  of 
the  mind  is  right,  rather  a  superaddition  of  incidental 
worldly  advantage  than  indispensable  constituents 
of  that  class  of  blessings  which  it  is  our  primary 
duty  to  aspire  to.     The  first  appeal  of  Christianity  is 
to  our  spiritual  and  moral  feelings,  because  in  pro- 
portion as  these  are  duly  cultivated  the  faculties  of 
the   understanding  acquire  their  relative  degree  of 
usefulness.     This  subjection  of  merely  intellectual 
to  moral  excellence,   which  is  so  oflfensive  to  the 
vanity  of  men  of  this  world  as  to   account  for  no 
small    degree   of    the   petulance   with    which   they 
regard   revelation,   is   traceable   from    first   to   last 
through  the  whole  tenor  of  Scripture.  That  it  indeed 
in  right  reason  ought  to  be  so,  is  suflRciently  obvious; 
nor  should  we  have  deemed  it  necessary  to  make  the 
remark  in  this  place,  did  it  not  serve  to  account  for, 
what  at  first  sight  seems  paradoxical  in  some  portions 
of  the  sacred  writings,  with  reference  to  the  preter- 
natural gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit  alluded  to  in  the  books 
both  of  the  Old  and  of  the  New  Testament. 


We  are  so  apt  to  be  struck  with  the  splendour,  and 
consequent  appearance  of  partial  favour  in  the  sight 
of  God,  attaching  to  the  miraculous  powers  of  pro- 
phecy and  language  distributed  to  individuals  on 
peculiar  and  remarkable  occasions,  that  we  feel  dis- 
posed to  undervalue  as  inferior  in  importance  those 
graces  which,  as  instruments  of  salvation,  are  essen- 
tial, and  have,  therefore,  been  made  accessible  to  the 
whole  Christian  world.  Hence  it  is  that  in  every 
period  of  religious  agitation  since  the  first  diff'usion 
of  Christianity,  individuals  have  been  found  who, 
whether  excited  by  fanaticism,  vanity,  or  other  less 
objectionable  motives,  but,  assuredly,  in  contradiction 
to  the  prudential  maxim  quoted  by  our  blessed 
Saviour  himself,  that  we  should  abstain  from  "  tempt- 
ing the  Lord  our  God,"  have  laid  claim  to  these  ex- 
traordinary gifts,  forgetting  that,  after  all,  the  entire 
submission  of  the  will,  with  which  Ave  defer  to  the 
providential  arrangements  of  our  Divine  Master,  is 
the  best  proof  as  well  of  our  favour  with  him  as  of 
the  rectitude  of  our  own  hearts.  It  is  a  salutary 
lesson,  accordingly,  which  seems  purposely  to  have 
been  given  to  us  by  Providence  in  order  to  correct 
this  prevailing  misapprehension,  that  what  we  usually 
styled  the  extraordinary  operations  of  the  Spirit 
appear  to  have  been  occasionally  conferred  under 
both  the  old  and  new  dispensations  upon  persons 
whose  moral  qualifications  have  been  sometimes 
more  than  questionable.  Thus,  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment we  read  of  the  profligate  and  mercenary 
Balaam,  the  reprobate  Saul,  and  the  vacillating  and 
apparently  worldly-minded  messenger  of  God's  wrath 
against  the  altar  of  Bethel,  as  sev^erally  endowed  with 
the  gift  of  prophecy:  and  in  the  New  Testament,  to 
look  no  further  than  tbe  case  of  the  litigious  members 
of  the  Corinthian  Church  addressed  by  St.  Paul,  we 
find  there  the  instance  of  a  far  from  exemplary  set 
of  members  of  the  Christian  community  exercising 
the  miraculous  faculty  of  languages,  which  they 


Mi 


■ 


Atl 


202 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


!'• 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON* 


203 


seem  undoubtedly  to  have  possessed,  for  no  better 
purpose  than  that  of  personal  ostentation  and  mutual 
rivalry.     It  is  clear  from  what  we  read  of  the  nature 
of  these  gifts,  from  the  comparatively  short  period  in 
which  they  were  allowed  to  continue,  and  their  com- 
plete cessation  in  the  later  ages,  that  they  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  essential  qualifications  of  the  Christian 
character,  but  were  intended  solely  as  instruments 
for  affixing  the  sanction  of  Divine  authority  to  the 
doctrines  then  inculcated,  or  for  the  production  of 
some  other  specific  occasional  purpose.     Such,  ac- 
cordingly, is  St.  Paul's  judgment  respecting  them. 
'*  Tongues,"  he  observes,  "are  for  a  sign,  not  to  them 
that  believe,  but  to  them  that  believe  not."     They 
were,  therefore,  with  the  other  miraculous  powers, 
well  adapted  for  the  peculiar  condition  of  an  infant 
Church,  which  had  by  its  own  intrinsic  energy  to 
break  its  way  through  the  strong  resistance  of  pre- 
judice  and   existing   institutions.     But,   assuredly, 
they  are  not  suited  for  the  general  well-being  of 
human  nature  under  other  less  critical  circumstances. 
As  marks  of  God's  peculiar  favour  to  this  or  that 
person,  it  is  evident  that  they  could  not  long  be 
enjoyed  without  producing  a  demoralizing  effect  upon 
the   character  of   their   possessor   by   the   spiritual 
vanity  which  they  are    so   obviously  calculated   to 
promote.     Consequently,  in  every  instance  in  which 
we  read  of  them,  they  appear  never  to  have  been 
capable  of  being  exercised  in  any  uniform  or  perma- 
nent degree  ;  never,  in  fact,  in  such  a  proportion  as  to 
place  the  parties  enjoying  them,  not  even  the  fore- 
most  and   holiest    men    under   both   dispensations, 
above  the  pressure  of  incidental  calamity,   or   the 
operation  of  natural  causes.     That  they  did  really 
exist  under  both  the  early  Jewish  and  the  early  Chris- 
tian covenants  is  most  certain,  not  only  from  the 
contemporary  and  unanswerable  records  which  have 
been  transmitted  to  our  times,  but  also  from   :he 
lingering  belief  in  the  continued  possession  of  those 


i 


gifts  which,  as  we  learn  from  the  writings  of  the 
early  Fathers  of  the  Church,  prevailed  even  in  their 
days,  and  which  disappeared  only  after  a  long  nega- 
tive experience  had  taught  mankind  no  longer  to  cal- 
culate upon  such  special  interpositions.  The  cir- 
cumstance of  their  having  been  thus  withdrawn  is  of 
itself  sufficient  to  convince  us  that  we  have  no  reason 
to  regret  their  loss.  As  gratuitous  marks  of  God's 
special  favour  and  acceptance  of  persons,  they  would 
be  pernicious  to  the  receiver,  and  contradictory  to  the 
impartial  tenor  of  the  Gospel  covenant;  even  as 
proofs  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrines  for  which  they* 
vouch,  they  would  in  our  times  be  inefficacious,  since 
at  a  period  when  no  really  new  communication  of 
llie  Divine  Will  can  be  or  ought  to  be  expected, 
the  fact  of  their  being  laid  claim  to  by  this  or  that 
individual  would  more  naturally  justify  a  suspicion 
of  fanaticism  or  imposture  on  his  partj  than  of  his 
real  and  authoritative  mission.  That  man  was  not 
intended  for  the  exercise  of  powers  of  this  intoxi- 
cating quality  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  pos- 
session of  it  has,  since  the  period  of  the  apostolical 
age,  been  asserted,  for  occasional  and  obviously  infe- 
rior purposes,  only  by  persons  of  very  excitable 
minds,  or  the  professed  leaders  of  a  party,  whilst  they 
have  been  disclaimed  successively  by  those  foremost 
lights  and  luminaries,  the  unassuming  sanctity  of 
whose  lives  has  reflected  the  purest  splendour  upon 
the  records  of  the  Christian  Church.  We  can,  in 
fact,  imagine  no  possible  gifts  of  Providence  which 
would  operate  so  fatally  as  that  now  alluded  to,  upon 
that  humble  and  confiding  faith  which  is  the  best 
possession  of  a  Christian  whilst  on  earth  :  that  faith 
which  "  sees  not,  and  yet  has  believed : "  which 
hopes  almost  against  hope,  and  remains  unshaken  in 
its  firm  reliance  upon  the  mercies  of  the  Almighty, 
under  the  infliction  of  the  heaviest  personal  calami- 
ties, or  the  most  overwhelming  causes  of  mental 
depression:  and  which,  amid  the  immoveable  uni- 


\ 


I 


204 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


205 


formity  of  tne  works  of  nature  and  the  seduction 
ot  physical  causes,  can  still  fix  its  eye  upon  those 
remote  but  imperishable  truths,  the  real  value  of 
which  those  only  can  duly  appreciate,  who  by  the 
blessed  aid  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  have  overcome  the 
world. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Recapitulationof  some  of  the  foregoing  Ohservations-The  scrtn- 
turul  Doctrine  of  the  Divinity  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  doctrines  of  Christianity,  then,  differ  from  the 
conclusions  of  mere  natural  religion  in  its  best  and 
purest  form,  in  the  fact  that  they  occupy  a  more  ex- 
tensive range  in  their  explanation  of  the  mysteries 
of  God's  moral  government  than  can  be  attempted 
by  our  unassisted  reason ;  and  that  whilst  the  latter 
IS  obliged  to  stop  short  in  the  midst  of  its  inquiries- 
m  consequence  of  the  accumulating  perplexities  and 
seeming  anomalies  which  crowd  in   upon    it  from 
every  quarter,  the  former,  by  the  adoption  of  the  twa 
great  collateral  truths  of  the  atonement  and  of  assist- 
mg  grace,  is  enabled  to  advance  a  step  further  and  to 
reconcile,  so  far  as  to  our  limited  understandin<T  such 
high  topics  can  be  reconciled,  the  strange  plienomena 
of  human  nature  with  the  unsullied  attributes  of  the 
Almighty.     That  these  two  momentous  positions  are 
not  gratuitous  and  superstitious  superadditions  to  the 
religion  of  nature,    but,  on    the   contrary,   that  the 
exclusion  of  them  would   render   every   reasonable 
view  of  religion  incomplete,  because  irrelevant  ta 
our  acknowledged   spiritual  wants,  must,   we  con- 
ceive, be  evident  to  all  those  who  will  take  the  trou- 
ble of  considering  this  intricate  question  in  all  its 
bearings.     It  is   true,  indeed  that  the  force  of  the 
conclusion  will  be  felt  only  by  such  persons  as  have 


\; 


impartially  explored  their  way,  step  by  step,  through 
the  several  stages  of  previous  inquiry.  To  a  mere 
careless  observer,  we  readily  admit  that  pure  and 
unmixed  Deism  may,  at  first  glance  appear  quite 
sufficient  to  answer  all  the  purposes  which  a  large 
portion  of  even  the  educated  classes  of  mankind  are  ' 
disposed  to  require  from  their  religion.  But  still  it 
is  only  the  careless  observer  who  will  be  thus  satis- 
fied, because  he  alone  is  ignorant  of  the  inexplicable 
difficulties  which  surround  natural  religioa,  con- 
sidered as  a  complete  system  in  itself,  and  when 
unaided  by  revelation.  It  is  impossible  to  take  a 
comprehensive  view  around  us,  without  coming  to 
the  conviction  that  an  arrangement,  far  more  com- 
plex than  the  simple  principles  afforded  by  the  light 
of  nature,  is  absolutely  necessary  for  meeting  all  the 
consequences  which  such  an  inquiry  suggests.  It 
is  accordingly,  on  this  account,  we  conceive,  that 
probably  not  one  single  instance  can  be  quoted  of  a 
really  painstaking  inquirer  into  the  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity having  closed  his  studies  with  a  mind  uncon- 
vinced by  the  force  of  the  evidence  on  which  they 
rest.  The  further  men  proceed  in  such  an  investi- 
gation, the  more  are  they  struck  by  the  discovery  of 
coincidences,  which  completely  escape  the  notice  of 
the  less  attentive  observer.  As  they  trace,  link  by 
link,  the  chain  of  inferences,  one  fact  leads  to,  and 
implies  the  existence  of,  another;  the  detection  of 
an  inveterate  moral  disease  within  themselves,  of 
which  they  were  not  previously  aware,  necessarily 
suggests  a  solicitude  after  its  cure;  and  thus  the 
inefficacy  of  the  simple  expedients  which  they  once 
deemed  sufficient  for  the  purpose  becomes  more  pal- 
pably evident,  in  proportion  as  they  are  more  deeply 
impressed  with  a  conviction  of  their  danger.  Hu- 
man reason,  accordingly,  as  she  advance2  with  con- 
science for  her  guide,  through  the  lengthening  series 
of  connected  consequences,  gradually  approximates 
to,   though  undoubtedly  she  could  never  originally 

18 


71 


\7 


206 


CONSISTENCY   OF    REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


207 


discover,  by  her  own  light,  those  very  results  which 
revelation  so  broadly  announces.  She  travels  in  the 
right  direction,  but  the  barrier  which  interrupts  her 
course,  and  obstructs  her  view  forward  to  more 
remote  truths,  is  removeable  by  inspiration  only. 
It  is  true  that  new  and  unforseen  difficulties  continue 
to  present  themselves  during  the  entire  course  of 
her  progress,  but  as  a  compensation,  those  more 
early  ones,  which  originally  appeared  to  her  as  per- 
fectly insuperable,  satisfactorily  adjust  themselves, 
and  by  the  new  position  which  they  occupy,  cease, 
as  formerly,  to  startle  by  their  seeming  anomaly* 
It  is,  however,  as  has  been  already  remarked,  the 
necessary  character  of  all  experimental  induction, 
to  remove  one  source  of  embarrassment  only  by  the 
substitution  of  another,  leaving  always  a  residue 
of  mystery  as  perplexing  to  our  apprehension  as 
that  which  first  stimulated  our  inquiry.  And  this 
must  more  particularly  be  the  case  in  theological 
pursuits  than  in  any  other  branch  of  science.  The 
real  proof  that  we  have  made  an  actual  progress  is, 
not  that  no  difficulty  lies  before  us,  but  that  those 
which  we  have  already  passed  are  thus  far  explained, 
and,  being  explained,  cohere,  by  a  natural  accord- 
ance, the  one  with  the  other.  Thus  it  is  in  the 
instance  now  under  discussion.  Nothing,  surely, 
can  be  more  satisfactory,  as  a  practical  vindication 
of  the  mercy  and  wisdom  of  our  Maker,  in  placing 
us  in  our  present  singular  position  in  this  life,  than 
the  certainly  of  the  great  truths  connected  with  the 
process  of  our  redemption.  So  completely  do  they 
appear  to  solve  the  most  prominent  enigmas  whicn 
present  themselves  at  the  very  threshold  of  inquiry, 
and  to  ratify  the  most  reasonable  postulates  of  na- 
tural religion,  that  they  may  be  said  to  carry  their  own 
proofs  along  with  them.  Still,  however,  we  mu§t 
recollect,  that  we  have  no  right  or  authority  to  avail 
ourselves  retrospectively  of  the  solution  afforded  to 
the  difficulties  of  natural  theology  by  the  revealed 


facts  of  Scripture,  and  to  decline,  at  the  same  time, 
to  admit  prospectively  the  legitimate  inferences  from 
those  facts,  be  their  character  what  they  may.  It 
is  the  besetting  error  of  all  loose  reasoners  and  half- 
formed  believers  in  the  doctrines  of  Christianity, 
to  forget  that  the  system  of  revelation  is  a  consistent 
and  entire  whole,  and  must  be  accepted  by  us  as 
such.  We  make  this  remark  on  the  present  occa- 
sion for  the  purpose  of  observing,  that  if  we  once 
admit  the  dogmas  of  justification  and  sanctification 
as  the  two  fundamental  positions  of  the  Gospel 
covenant  we  are  bound  not  to  stop  at  this  point,  but 
to  advance  forward  to  the  strictly  inferential  but  less 
obvious  truths  inseparably  connected  with  them. 
Thus  the  doctrine  of  the  divinity  of  Christ,  as  has 
been  already  shown,  would  appear  to  follow  from 
the  conclusions  of  reason  alone,  independently  of 
what  we  find  directly  asserted  by  Scripture  to  the 
same  effect,  if  we  assent  to  that  of  his  infinite  atone- 
ment for  sin.  In  like  manner  the  concurrent  doc- 
trine of  assisting  grace  would  lead  us,  by  analogy, 
to  the  same  inference  respecting  the  divine  and  per- 
sonal nature  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  even  were  revela- 
tion silent  on  that  subject:  "'e  cannot,  therefore,  be 
surprised  upon  finding  the  express  language  of  the 
inspired  writings  conveying  the  same  impression. 
It  is  true,  indeed,  that  we  cannot,  without  gross  pre- 
sumption, assert  that  these  two  inferences  might 
actually  have  been  arrived  at  by  the  natural  powers 
of  the  understanding  tracing  the  succession  of  con- 
nected consequences:  all  we  mean  to  argue,  there- 
fore, is,  that  when  revelation  has  once  announced 
them  as  facts,  we  can  see  retrospectivelv  sufficient 
grounds  for  admitting  them  as  intrinsically  proba- 
ble. Thus  far  only  we  conceive  that  any  reasoning 
from  internal  probability  can  be  legitimately  car- 
ried.. On  these  high  and  transcendental  questions 
all  a  priori  arguments,  whether  afiirmative  or  nega- 
tive, are  obviously  irrelevant,  unless  made  strictly 


i 


1 1 


•I! 


i 


I 


208 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


209 


subservient  to  the  written  declarations  of  the  inspired 
word  of  God.  Points  which  are  confessedly  above 
the  reach  of  human  reason,  we  should  recollect,  not 
only  may  not,  but  in  strictness  cannot  be  contrary  to 
it.  We  possess  no  standard  within  our  own  minds 
by  which  to  measure  their  truth  or  falsehood,  and 
therefore  as  it  is  impossible,  by  mere  argument,  to 
prove  their  accordance  with  probability,  it  is  equally 
so  to  demonstrate  their  discordance. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Of  Uie  Holy  Trinity. 

If,  however,  we  admit  that  the  personality  and 
divinity  both  of  the  Redeemer  and  of  the  Sanctifier 
of  mankind  are  positively  asserted  by  Scripture,  and 
admit  it  we  must,  unless  we  would  shut  our  eyes  to  the 
general  tendency  of  revelation,  and  the  obvious  pur- 
port of  common  language,  then  the  great  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  would  appear  to  follow,  not 
so  much  in  the  form  of  an  inferential  consequence 
derivable  from  those  premises,  as  in  that  of  an  iden- 
tical proposition.  So  far  from  being  an  excrescence 
unnecessarily  superadded,  by  human  invention,  to 
the  more  simple  scheme  of  Christianity,  and  equally 
repugnant,  as  has  been  alleged,  to  sound  reason  and 
the  declarations  of  Holy  Writ,  this  final  and  moment- 
ous truth  appears,  so  far  as  we  may,  with  all  due 
humility,  venture  to  surmise,  to  suggest  nothing  at 
all  repugnant  with  the  former,  and  to  be  explicitly 
established  by  the  latter.  It  stands,  in  fact,  as  the 
crowning  point  in  which  all  the  converging  parts  of 
God's  revealed  arrangements  would  seem  to  termi- 
nate, and  which  once  removed,  would  cause  the  beau- 
tiful symmetry  of  that  dispensation  which  Providence 
had  been,  for  the  space  of  four  thousand  years,  foster- 


I 


lug  and  maturing,  until  the  period  of  its  final  promul- 
gation, to  fall  of  itself  piece-meal  into  a  mass  of 
unconnected  propositions  and  of  intricate  contriv- 
ances, deprived  of  any  definite  end  or  object.  The 
slightest  glance  at  the  heads  of  the  foregoing  argu- 
ments will  show  that  this  assertion  is  not  lightly  or 
hastily  made.  It  is,  we  repeat,  evidently  impossible 
to  deny  the  truth  of  the  Trinitarian  doctrine,  and  to 
retain  those  of  the  atonement,  and  of  sanctifying 
grace,  as  part  and  parcel  of  Christianity,  because  the 
admission  of  tk^  two  latter,  by  an  obvious  implica- 
tion, involves  the  certainty  of  the  former.  Again, 
we  cannot  omit  those  two  last-mentioned  doctrines 
from  our  system  of  faith,  without  at  once  reducing 
the  whole  Gospel  dispensation  to  a  mere  code  of 
morals,  not  only  ineflectual  as  a  practical  instrument 
of  righteousness,  but  actually  adding  an  accession  of 
weight  to  our  already  overcharged  load  of  responsi- 
bility. We  cannot  again  take  this  very  humble  view 
of  the  character  of  the  great  final  consummation  of 
our  Maker's  direct  intercourse  with  mankind,  with- 
out perceiving  how  very  unlike  it  is,  if  true,  in  point 
of  simplicity  and  contrivance  to  all  the  other  acknow- 
ledged operations  of  Divine  wisdom.  If  such  a  theory 
as  that  of  the  Unitarian  be  correct,  then  it  is  quite 
impossible  to  reconcile  with  what  we  know  of  the 
workings  of  the  Almighty  mind  from  the  phenomena 
of  the  material  universe,  the  very  elaborate  and 
intricate  series  of  miracles  and  predictions  which 
form  the  subject  matter  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
the  deviations  from  the  ordinary  course  of  nature 
which  marked  the  promulgation  of  the  new  covenant. 
The  whole  system  of  revelation  would,  in  that  case, 
,appear  to  be  a  tissue  of  wonders  without  an  adequate, 
we  might  almost  say  without  any,  object.  In  the 
niaterial  creation  it  is  never,  so  far  as  the  researches 
of  philosophy  extend,  the  apparently  efficient  cause, 
but  the  resulting  effects  which  are  diversified  and 
intricate.     From  one  single  and  often  apparently 

18* 


J  '■ 


I    ,^ 


210 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


trifling  fact,  that,  for  instance,  of  the  obliquity  of  the 
earth's  axis,   the  all-wise  Contriver  knows  how  to 
elicit   the   most  important  and  multifarious  conse- 
quences, which  branch  out  in  every  possible  direction 
to  the  production  of  beauty  and  usefulness.     Is  there, 
then,  any  unsoundness  in  the  argument  which  infers 
unity  of  design  in  all  the  works  of  an  all-wise  Author  ? 
Is  it  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  arrangements  of 
the  self-same  all-comprehending  mind  would  be  found 
to  be  at  variance  with  one  another  ?     That  in  one, 
the  least  valuable,  portion  of  theciniverse,  causes 
should  be  simple,  and  effects  intricate;  in  the  other 
and  most  important,  that  causes  should  be  intricate 
and  effects  simple  ?     The  opposite  assumption  would 
surely   seem  the  most   probable.      Such,  however, 
would  be  the  conclusion  to  which  Unitarianism  would 
lead  us.     If,  then,  the  course  of  God's  spiritual  pro- 
vision for  our  eternal  welfare  has  been  marked,  as  it 
assuredly  has  been,  with  a  superabundant  proportion 
of  preparatory  contrivance,  the  inference,  from  analo- 
gy, appears  obvious,  that  the  result  will  be  found  to 
be  in  momentous   importance  proportionate  to  the 
beginning;  and  that  a  system,  the  foundation  of  which 
has  been  laid  in  an  almost  unbroken  continuity  of 
miracles,   cannot   finally  terminate  in  what  might 
have  been  accomplished  by  human  means,  without 
the  aid  of  miracle,  namely,  the  inculcation  of  a  mere 
code  of  ethical  philosophy,  however,  in  itself,  admira- 
ble and  perfect.      Nothing,  surely,  according  to  this 
view  of  the  subject,  can  appear  more  irrational  than 
what  is  called  rational  religion.     To  those  who  deny, 
altogether,  the  inspiration  of  Scripture,  Unitarianism, 
aided,  as  it  still  might  be,  by  the  splendid  morality 
of  the  Bible,  is  undoubtedly  capable  of  affording  a 
plausible,  though  unsubstantial,  rule  of  life  which,  as 
calculated  to  please  the  eye  and  amuse  the  ear,  and 
to  supply  the  tongue  with  well-sounding  maxims, 
may  pass  for  real  religion  with  the  careless  and  lan- 
guid votary  of  this  world.    But  it  is  a  perfect  contra- 


-»i' 


^ 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


211 


diction  to  advance  one  step  further  than  this  point, 
and,  admitting  the  infallibility  of  the  sacred  writings, 
to  attempt  to  explain  away  their  most  unequivocal 
declarations,  solely  because  our  natural  understanding 
cannot  keep  pace  with  the  wonders  which  they 
develope.  Revelation  professes  to  lead  us  beyond  the 
barrier  which  marks  the  confines  of  human  know- 
ledge, and  to  place,  as  it  were,  the  very  throne  and 
effulgence  of  the  Divine  Being  almost  within  our 
view.  Is  this  the  point,  at  the  very  moment  when 
human  reason  fails  us,  and  when  every  scale  and 
standard  of  measurement  by  which  we  may  judge  of 
the  internal  truth  or  falsehood  of  a  proposition  becomes 
inapplicable,  where  we  ought  to  stop  and  discuss  how 
much  of  those  hallowed  oracles  we  shall  receive,  and 
how  much  reject  ?  On  questions  like  these  the  entire 
submission  of  the  understanding  is  assuredly  the 
mark  of  a  strong  and  not  of  an  infirm  mind.  The 
anti-Trinitarian  asserts  the  competency  of  human 
reason  to  pronounce  judgment  upon  even  all  the 
transcendental  topics  which  form  the  subject-matter 
of  revelation,  and  argues  that  no  proposition  which 
involves  a  positive  contradiction  of  terms  can  possibly 
be  true.  The  obvious  answer  to  this  argument  is 
that  of  inquiring,  how  he  knows  that  the  Trinitarian 
doctrine  does  involve  the  contradiction  which  he  sup- 
poses. We  know,  experimentally,  that  w^ere  our 
acquaintance  with  the  points  of  secular  science  less 
than  it  is,  w€  should,  without  hesitation,  pronounce 
many  things  to  be  incompatible  and  contradictory  the 
one  to  the  other  which  are  found  to  be  really  congru- 
ous and  coexistent.  General  assertions  are  easily  got 
up,  and  always  carry  with  them  an  imposing  and 
philosophical  air.  But  a  large  proportion  of  the  real 
order  of  nature  is  made  up  of  exceptions  to  such 
general  and  comprehensive  rules.  Thus  we  often 
hear  it  urged,  that  the  acknowledged  unity  of  the 
Divine  nature  is  manifestly  irreconcilable  with  the 
Trinitarian  doctrine ;  individuality  of  person  and  of 


212 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN   KEASON, 


213 


consciousness  being  capable,  as  it  is  alleged,  under 
no  possible  circumstances,  of  attaching  to  a  Being 
possessed  of  a  complex  mode  of  existence.  The 
objection,  undoubtedly,  at  first  sight,  appears  forcible. 
And  yet  we  reply,  let  the  objector,  before  he  proceeds 
to  reason  confidently  upon  the  universality  of  his 
rule,  refer  to  the  fact  of  his  own  complex  constitution 
as  an  illustration  of  it.  Man  himself,  we  assert,  is 
in  this  respect  a  case  in  point.  Compounded  of  body 
and  soul,  of  two  substances,  which  we  have  the 
strongest  reason  for  considering  as  essentially  distinct 
in  all  their  characteristics  the  one  from  the  other,  he 
fitill  is  actually  and  oxperimentally  one  single  indii» 
vidual  in  the  strictest  meaning  of  the  term.  If,  then, 
we  are  met  by  so  startling  an  exception  to  this  seem*- 
ing  general  maxim  at  the  very  outset  of  our  inquiry, 
surely  we  can  hope  little  from  the  guidance  of  mere 
reason  in  the  investigation  of  higher  mysteries,  where 
any  thing  like  experimental  induction  is  manifestly 
out  of  the  question.  And  yet,  strange  it  is  to  say, 
that  upon  this  single  assumption,  rendered  untenable, 
as  it  would  seem  to  be,  by  the  most  familiar  fact,  and 
60  completely  inapplicable  when  resorted  to  as  a 
principle  by  which  to  judge  of  the  nature  of  the 
incomprehensible  Creator  of  the  universe,  the  hypo* 
thesis  of  Christian  Unitarianism  rests  almost  entirely 
for  its  support,  sacrificing  to  an  equivocal  a  priori 
dictum  the  whole  consistency  of  the  theory,  and  the 
fi^OiX  direct  assertions  of  the  letter  of  revelation. 


If 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

On  the  practical  tendency  of  the  Christian  virtue  of  "Faith,** 

We  have  now,  then,  taken  a  general  and  enlarged, 
though  a  hasty,  view  of  the  entire  scheme  of  God's 
interposition  for  the  salvation  of  mankind,  as  com- 
municated to  us  in  the  books  of  the  old  and  new 
covenants,  and  we  have  remarked  one  uniform  idea 
pervading  the  whole,  which,  though  developed  piece- 
meal, and  at  many  distinct  periods,  clearly  announ- 
ces the  superintending  direction  of  an  Almighty 
Contriver.  The  great  scope  and  object  of  the  whole 
appears  to  be  the  reconciling  of  the  free  agency  and 
moral  training  of  the  human  soul  with  the  abstract 
principles  of  eternal  justice  and  mercy,  by  a  special 
arrangement  well  calculated  in  this  world  to  call 
into  action  the  highest  quality  of  spiritual  holiness 
of  which  our  present  nature  is  capable,  and  in  a 
future  state  of  existence  to  avert  the  otherwise 
inevitable  consequences  of  sin,  and  to  purchase  for 
those,  who  sincerely  conform  to  the  conditions  re- 
quired of  them,  an  eternal  allotment  of  inconceiva- 
ble felicity.  In  making  this  survey,  one  remarkable 
circumstance  has  not  failed  to  strike  us;  namely, 
how  great  a  demand  is  made  upon  our  moral  powers 
of  obedience  and  self-restraint,  by  a  system  which, 
from  the  external  aids  both  of  sanctification  and  of 
expiation,  which  it  pledges  itself  to  afford,  would 
appear  above  all  other  modes  of  religion  calculated 
to  encourage  personal  indolence.  This  is  one  of 
the  most  singular  features  of  revelation,  and  strongly 
illustrates  the  wisdom  with  which  it  hac  been  con- 
trived ;  namely,  that  its  practical  operation  is  inva- 
riably found  to  steer  clear  of  those  defects  to  which, 
when  viewed  as  a  mere  theory,  it  would  seem  obvi- 


2U 


CONSISTENCY  OP   REVELATION 


WITH   HU3IAN    REASON. 


215 


ously  to    ead.     No  doctrine  appears   at   first  sight 
more  likelv  to  suspend  the  exertion  of  every  active 
power  within  us  than  that  which  inculcates  that  all 
our  best  endeavours  are  the  special  gift  of  an  exter- 
nal agency,  and  that  our  only  hopes  of  external  sal- 
vation  rest  not  upon  our  own  personal  merits,  but 
upon  a  vicarious  expiation  wrought  for  us,  without 
any  effective  assistance  on  our  part.     That  such  an 
hypothesis  would   tend  in  its  operation  to  depress 
rather  than  to  elevate  the  human  character,  seems 
we  confess,  a  natural  and  almost  inevitable  inference  • 
and  that  such  actually  is  its  tendency  has  been  not 
untrequently  asserted  by  its  enemies.     And  yet  we 
hnd,  experimentally,  that  nothing  can  he  more  re- 
mote irom  the  .truth  than  such  a  conclusion.     We 
have  reverted  to  these  remarks,  which  have  already 
been  advanced  on  a  former  occasion,  for  the  sake  of 
the  illustration  they  aflbrd  with  respect  to  the  value 
and  character  of  the  one  great  and  prominent  Chris- 
tian virtue— faith.     The  instrument  by  which  alone 
we  are  assured  that  we  can  lay  hold  of  the  benefits 
profiered  to  our  acceptance  by  the  Gospel  Covenant 
IS  this  quality  of  faith;  and,  in  order  that  we  may 
iie  under  no  misapprehension  with  respect  to  the  full 
meanmg  of  the  term,  we  find  it  repeatedly  described 
by  Scripture  as  being  not  merely  an  implicit  belief 
m  the  fact  of  Christ's  mission,  but  also  a  reposing 
confidence  upon  his  atonement  for  sin,  and  an  abso- 
lute  denial  and  renunciation  of  any  merit  whatever 
as  attaching  to  our  own  actions.     At  the  same  time, 
It  is  an  undeniable  truth,  that  the  self-same  Scrip! 
tures,  which  appear  thus  to  detract  from  the  merit 
ot  good  works,  are  most  peremptorv  and  uncompro- 
misingin  the  tone  in  which  they  demand  them  at  our 
ftands.     Here  is  every  appearance  of  a  direct  contra- 
diction  ;  and  yet  it  is  only  one  of  those  seemin<r  con- 
tradictions which,  as  if  for  the  purpose  of  humijia- 
ting  human  reason,  are  scattered,  from  time  to  time. 
lUwugh  the  inspired  volume,  but  which,  practically 


are  found  to  be  replete  with  profound  wisdom.  If 
accordingly  we  will  take  a  retrospective  glance  at 
human  history,  and  ask  what  single  quality  and 
affection  of  the  mind  of  man  has  achieved  more  acts 
of  real  heroism,  has  more  perseveringly  compassed 
sea  and  land  in  quest  of  works  of  charity,  has  more 
uniformly  subdued  the  natural  arrogance  of  the  heart 
in  the  full  tide  of  temporal  prosperity,  or  armed  it  with 
the  most  exemplary  and  cheerful  patience  under  the 
severest  inflictions  of  adversity,  we  shall  boldly  an- 
swer, faith.  There  is,  in  fact,  no  imaginable  state 
of  mind,  no  circumstance  or  condition  of  life,  to 
which  this  foremost  Christian  principle  is  not  calcu- 
lated to  extend  a  beneficial  influence.  Faith  is  the 
appointed  means  by  which  we  are  enabled  to  avail 
ourselves  of  the  benefits  intended  to  be  conveyed  to 
mankind  by  the  death  of  Christ ;  and  it  is  so  for  this 
substantial  reason,  because  it  is  the  principle  by  the 
adoption  of  which  we  can  alone  render  ourselves  like 
unto  him  by  the  holiness  and  purity  of  our  lives,  by 
the  unaffected  humility  of  our  obedience,  and  by  the 
sublimity  of  our  spiritual  aspirations.  Faith,  far  more 
than  any  other  spiritual  operation  with  which  we  are 
acquainted,  extinguishes  within  us  the  corrupt  appe- 
tites of  the  flesh  by  approximating  us  to,  and  almost 
indentifying  us  \^Kth,  our  great  Exemplar  and  Pattern. 
To  have  faith  in  Christ,  in  the  full  Scriptural  sense, 
is  obviously,  not  merely  to  believe  that  he  is,  or  that 
he  came  into  the  world,  and  continued  in  it  for  a 
definite  period;  but  it  is  the  belief  that  he  came  to 
save  sinners,  when  no  less  a  sacrifice  could  avert 
from  them  the  Divine  wrath;  it  is  our  conviction  of 
the  extreme  deadliness  and  abomination  of  sin  which 
could  render  so  vast  an  expiation  necessary,  with  the 
consequent  inference  of  the  obligation  of  aiming  at 
the  highest  stage  of  holiness  to  which  our  imperfect 
nature  can  attain,  and  of  cultivating  the  deepest 
sentiments  of  gratitude  to  God,  of  distrust  of  our- 
selves, and  of  charity  towards  our  fellow-creatures, 


>  —  ■*»-  

■  iiiiH   t  > 


ijiau 


^^^-^^''-"- 


f 


216 


CONSISTENCY   OF    REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


217 


who,  having  been  involved  in  one  common  condem- 
nation, are  now,  together  with  us,  candidates  for 
our  Maker's  unearned  and  gratuitous  mercy.  It  is 
obvious,  that  nothing  short  of  the  high  wrought 
feeling  now  described  can  deserve  to  be  designated 
as  that  faith  which  the  Gospel  inculcates.  To  ima- 
gine that  the  same  awful  Being  who  submitted  to 
pay  the  forfeiture  of  sin  in  his  own  person  could 
intend,  by  so  doing,  to  sanction,  and  even  encourage, 
the  renewed  commission  of  it;  that  it  is  seemly,  or 
even  possible,  to  know  that  we  have  received  so  vast 
a  benefit,  and  yet  not  to  love  the  Benefactor ;  that 
loving  him  with  all  befitting  fervour,  we  could  deli- 
berately wish  to  disobey  his  commands,  and  coun- 
teract his  holy  purposes,  or  that  such  fervour  of  love 
can  be  consistent  with  limited  and  desultory  efforts 
after  righteousness,  with  cruelty,  selfishness,  and  in- 
solence towards  others,  or  with  an  undue  preference 
of  temporal  to  spiritual  objects,  are  all  of  them 
manifest  contradictions.  "If  ye  love  me,"  says  our 
blessed  Saviour,  "keep  my  commandments."  Faith 
then,  so  far  from  being  a  merely  theoretical,  is,  in 
the  strongest  meaning  of  the  term,  a  practical  excel- 
lence. It  is  impossible  substantially  to  possess  it 
without  the  adoption  of  that  new  life  and  that  purity 
and  regeneration  of  the  character  which  is  the  best 
proof  of  the  accompanying  grace  of  God's  Holy 
Spirit,  and  which  the  Apostle  so  well  describes  when 
he  figuratively  compares  it  to  being  dead  with  Christ 
unto  sin,  and  raised  again  with  him  to  a  life  of  spi- 
ritual holiness;  and  with  reference  to  which  happy 
state  he  asserts,  that  he  who  is  of  Christ  sins  not. 

Would  men  have  early  learned  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  very  dissimilar  ideas  conveyed  by  the  term 
faith  when  intended  merely  to  designate  belief  m  a 
purely  historical  fact,  which  is  obviously  compatible 
with  a  very  low  grade  of  devotional  feeling,  and  by 
the  same  word  when  expressing  a  conscientious  adop- 
tion of  all  the  momentous  inferences  above  enu- 


f 


w 


^ 


m 


merated,  the  false  assumptions  which  have  prevailed 
on  both  sides  of  this  important  question  could  never 
have  thrown  the  stigma  upon  Christianity  which, 
unfortunately,  they  have  done.  But  the  fact  is,  that 
nothing  is  so  difhcult  in  religious  discussion  as  to 
keep  the  middle  road.  The  holiest  truths  ever  lie 
in  close  contact  with  the  most  pernicious  falsehoods, 
and  it  often  requires  no  small  nicety  of  moral  discern- 
ment to  distinguish  between  them.  Exaggerated 
statements,  and  the  predilection  for  one  part  of  a 
system,  at  the  expense,  and  to  the  neglect  of  all  the 
rest,  are  the  bane  of  Christianity,  as  they  have  been 
the  grand  impediments  in  the  way  of  man's  advance- 
ment in  all  wholesome  science  whatever.  It  is  the 
rectitude  of  the  heart  which  can  alone  direct  the 
understanding  safely  amid  the  many  conflicting 
theories  resulting  from  false  ingenuity  and  partial 
views  of  the  spirit  of  revelation  :  and  that  rectitude 
can  be  duly  maintained  only  by  keeping  the  devo- 
tional feelings  warm,  and  our  carnal  imaginations 
cool  and  collected ;  by  enlarged  and  cheering  views 
of  the  arrangements  of  that  great  Being  who,  we  are 
assured,  would  not  that  any,  the  least  of  his  creatures, 
should  perish,  accompanied  with  the  most  unfeigned 
humility  with  regard  to  our  own  personal  merits; 
and  by  a  deep  conviction,  on  the  other  hand,  that  not 
even  the  plentiude  of  Divine  mercy  itself  can  release 
us  from  that  duty  of  purity  and  holiness  which,  even 
were  all  future  retribution  out  of  the  question,  would 
necessarily  attach  to  us  as  moral  and  intellectual 
beings. 


19 


I 


218 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN    REASON. 


219 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

Of  Ecclesiastical  Authority  and  Ordinances. 

In  the  foregoing  remarks  we  have  attempted  io 
trace  the  gradual  growth  and  developement  of  the 
great  scheme  of  revelation  from  its  first  imperfect 
commencement,  as  adapted  to  the  wants  of  a  compara- 
tively low  grade  of  society,  to  that  later  period  when 
it  at  length  shone  forth  in  full  splendour,  and,  hy  its 
overpowering  brilliancy,  extinguished,  as  it  were, 
all  the  weaker  lights  of  human  ethics,  which  the 
researches  of  the  wisest  men  of  antiquity  had  set  up 
for  the  guidance  of  mankind.  We  have  also  endea- 
voured to  show  that,  perplexing  as  some  of  the  facts 
which  it  announces  may  be  to  our  reason,  and  even 
startling  as  some  of  its  doctrines  may  at  first  sight 
appear  to  our  moral  feelings,  the  practical  operation 
of  that  revelation  upon  the  human  character  is  what 
we  cannot  possibly  appreciate  too  highly  ;  and  that, 
under  its  auspicious  influence,  the  soul  of  man  is 
capable,  even  in  this  world,  of  attaining  to  a  moral 
growth  and  elevation  of  which  those  who  derive  their 
notions  from  other  modifications  of  belief  cannot  form 
the  slightest  idea.  Such  then,  we  repeat,  is  Chris- 
tianity in  its  essentials,  both  with  respect  to  faith  and 
practice;  and  such,  had  human  nature  been  disposed, 
of  its  own  accord,  to  choose  the  good  and  refuse  the 
evil,  would  it  probably  been  left  to  us  by  Providence 
in  all  its  intrinsic  simplicity,  without  those  accom- 
panying enactments  and  institutions  which,  in  strict- 
ness, are  to  be  viewed  rather  as  necessary  defensive 
accessories  than  as  part  and  parcel  of  its  original 
structure.  Such,  however,  unfortunately,  is  the  per- 
versity of  our  passions,  that  almost  as  much  elaborate 
contrivance  is  necessary  to  enable  us  to  enjoy  the 


best  gifts  of  Providence,  without  abusing  or  diverting 
them  from  their  original  purpose,  as  to  purchase  the 
original  possession  of  them.  It  is  not  enough  that 
God  has  filled  this  world  with  almost  inexhaustible 
blessings,  but  it  is  also  necessary  that  coercive  human 
laws  should  regulate  the  mode  of  their  fruition,  should 
restrain  fraud  and  rapine,  and  prevent  our  perverting 
them  to  our  own  injury,  and  to  that  of  society  in 
general.  So  is  it  also  with  the  important  concerns 
of  religion.  Were  no  mistaken  views,  the  results  of 
carnal  passion,  likely  to  bias  our  opinions ;  did  no 
hebetude  of  judgment  continually  interpose  itself  to 
prevent  our  taking  in  the  entire  conception  and  the 
exact  proportions  of  the  respective  articles  of  our 
faith  ;  were  there  no  such  a  thing  as  a  captious 
ingenuity,  which  loves  to  overstate  antagonist  por- 
tions of  docrine,  and  no  selfishness  which  shrinks 
from  the  practice  of  every  self-denying  duty,  then, 
indeed,  the  beautiful  system  of  Christian  morals 
might  have  stood  unsupported  by  any  external  aid, 
and  have  been  left  to  the  awakened  good  feelings  of 
mankind  to  attract  their  admiration  and  improve  their 
practice.  But  these  visionary  dreams  of  perfection 
nave  nothing  to  do  with  the  present  very  humble 
circumstances  of  our  nature.  The  pure  essentials  of 
religion  can  be  no  more  maintained  under  the  exist- 
ing constitution  of  this  world  without  the  aid  of  dis- 
cipline and  an  established  ritual,  than  the  political 
welfare  of  society  can  remain  flourishing  without  the 
awe  and  deference  attaching  to  the  authority  of  the 
magistrate.  We  are  perfectly  conscious  of  the  deli- 
cacy of  the  ground  on  which  we  are  now  treading. 
It  is,  we  admit,  an  obvious  truth  that  no  restraints 
upon  our  presumed  natural  liberty  can  be  designated 
as  really  good  in  themselves,  but  only  inasmuch 
as  they  enable  us  to  enjoy  blessings  which  would  be 
otherwise  inaccessible.  We  admit,  also,  the  encroach- 
ing nature  of  all  human  judgment  when  interfering 
with  the  questions  of  religion,  and  the  necessity  of 


220 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


maintaining  a  jealous  caution  that  the  word  of  God 
shall  not  be  rendered  of  none  effect  by  becoming 
intermingled  with   the   traditions  of  man.     But  it 
is  certain,  on  the  other  hand,  that  even  were  the 
word  of  God  silent  on  this  important  question,  the 
whole  history  of  the  last  eighteen  centuries  would 
show  that  pure  and  unadulterated  Christianity  can 
really  flourish  only  where  the  waywardness  and  self- 
will  of  individual  caprice  is  subjected  to  the  restraints 
of  wholesome  and  enlightened  authority.     It  is  not 
indeed  necessary,  and  it  is  far  from  our  wish  on  this 
occasion,  to  dwell  in  any  length  upon  the  very  deli- 
cate and  much  contested  point  respecting  any  pecu- 
liar forms  of  ecclesiastical  government,  how  far  and 
under  what  modification  such  systems  existed  in  the 
primitive  Church,  and  may  be  considered  as  impera- 
tive upon  the  consciences  of  succeeding  generations. 
In  a  dissertation,  the  express  object  of  which  is  to 
promote  unity  of  spiritual  faith  among  all  denomina- 
tions of  Christians,  by  pointing  out  the  remarkable 
coherence  of  the  respective  parts  of  revelation  one 
with  the  other,  and  their  concurrence  in  promoting 
one  grand  and  ultimate  design,  it  cannot  be  expedient 
to  excite  the  feelings  of  party  jealousy  by  speaking 
invidiously  on  less  essential  topics,  upon  which  we 
may  charitably  presume  that  an  erroneous  opinion 
may  be  maintained  without  a  forfeiture  of  the  funda- 
mentals of  sound  belief.     Respecting,  therefore,  and 
admiring   as   we   do   that  form  of  discipline  more 
especially  recognised  in  this  country,  which  we  cer- 
tainly conceive  to  approach  as  nearly  to  the  apostoli- 
cal model  as  the  altered  circumstances  of  mankind 
will  admit,  we   shall  still   content  ourselves  with 
merely  observing  that  even  the  most  ardent  champion 
of  Christian  liberty  must  confess,  if  he  reason  fairly, 
that  a  respectful  deference  lo  that  system  of  authori- 
tative restraint,  be  it  what  it  will,  which  is  found 
practically  necessary  for  the  discouragement  of  here- 
tical innovation,  is  as  strictly  a  point  of  conscientious 


WITH   HUMAN  REASON. 


221 


obligation  as  any  other  case  of  obedience  to  the 
Divine  Will.  "  God  is  not  the  author  of  confusion, 
but  of  peace."  Spiritual  as  the  character  of  Chris- 
tian worship  is,  and  encouraging,  as  it  undoubtedly 
does,  the  most  direct  intercourse  between  the  human 
supplicant  and  the  great  object  of  his  adoration,  it  is 
quite  evident  that  so  long  as  it  is  intended  for  the 
benefit  of  mankind  it  will  require  to  be  fenced  round 
with  those  precautionary  outworks  against  the  en- 
croachments of  fanaticism,  superstition,  and  unauthor- 
ized human  interpretation,  which  if  allowed  full 
liberty  of  action  would  shortly  destroy  its  very 
essence.  It  is  in  vain  that  we  deprecate  the  existence 
of  ecclesiastical  authority  so  far  as  its  functions  are 
soberly  exercised  in  promoting  the  solemnity,  de- 
cency, and  evangelical  purity  of  public  worship,  if 
the  waywardness  of  human  passion  be  such  as  to 
render  that  authority  imperatively  necessary.  Our 
Blessed  Saviour,  himself,  by  the  institution  of  the  two 
external  rites  of  baptism  and  the  Eucharist,  and  by 
the  solemn  delegation  of  the  ministerial  functions  to 
his  chosen  apostles,  clearly  demonstrated  that  it  was 
not  the  object  of  the  Gospel  dispensation  to  super- 
sede entirely  the  use  of  ritual  observances,  or  the 
exercise  of  wholesome  interference  when  called  for 
by  the  waywardness  of  licentious  opinion.  In  the 
13th  chapter  of  the  Book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
also,  we  find  the  rite  of  ministerial  ordination  by  the 
imposition  of  hands  sanctioned  by  immediate  inspira- 
tion. "As  they  (the  members  of  the  Church  of 
Antioch)  ministered  to  the  Lord  and  fasted,  the  Holy 
Ghost  said,  *  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul,  for  the 
work  whereunto  I  have  called  them.'  And  when  they 
had  fasted  and  prayed,  and  laid  their  hands  on  them, 
they  sent  them  away :  So  they,  being  sent  forth  by 
the  Holy  Ghost,  departed,"  &c.  What  proposition, 
it  might  have  been  confidently  asked,  is  more  palpa- 
bly self-evident,  than  that  the  choice  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  would  be  a  sufficient  authority  and  qualifica- 

19* 


222 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


tion  for  its  ministers,  without  the  intervention  of 
human  agency?     Yet  here  that  very  Spirit  is  de- 
scribed as  requiring  that  the  communication  of  its 
gifts  should  be  ratified  by  the  delegation  of  the  visible 
Church.     Again,  we   read   in  the  same  portion  of 
Sacred  History  that  the  assembled  Church  of  Jerusa- 
lem thought  fit  to  resolve,  authoritatively,  the  then 
much  agitated  question  respecting  the  expediency  of 
circumcision,  and  to  issue  at  the  same  time  other 
rules  for  the  spiritual  direction  of  the  new  converts  ; 
and  we  learn  also  from  the  Apostolical  Epistles  that 
the  various  Churches  scattered  over  Greece  and  Asia 
were  severally  placed  under  the  guidance  of  their 
respective  Governors,  who  possessed  and  exercised 
power  for  the  ordination  of  well  qualified  teachers, 
and  the  excommunication  of  the  corrupters  of  the  true 
doctrine.     The  doubt,  therefore,  if  any,  respecting 
Church  authority  is  clearly  not  one  of  fact,  for  that  is 
admitted  by  all  parties,  but  of  degree  only.     But  the 
discussion  and  settlement  of  that  precise  degree  which 
shall  be  neither  more  nor  less  than  what  expediency 
requires,  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  problems  which 
the  practical  study  of  theology  suggests.     Certain, 
however,  it  is  that  the  line  of  demarcation  which 
separates  the  strict  essentials  of  Christian  faith  from 
those  accessory  rules  and  institutions  which  form  its 
outworks,  and  were  intended  solely  for  its  protection, 
from  external  injury,  should  never  be  lost  sight  of 
by  those  who  are  anxious  to  imbibe  the  unadulterated 
spirit  of  Christianity.     Without  a  jealous  vigilance 
against    the    possible    substitution    of  the   dicta  of 
human  judgment  in  the  place  of  the  inspired  and 
authoritative  oracles  of  God,  we  know  from  expe- 
rience that  the  introduction  into  the  Church  of  super- 
stitious formalities   and   of  spiritual   usurpation  is 
inevitable.     But  we  know,  also,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  nothing  is  more  certain,  than  that  if  by  advo- 
cating what  is  called  Christian  liberty  it  is  intended  to 
introduce  a  complete  emancipation  from  all  right  of 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


223 


dictation  to  the  ignorant,  or  of  censure  and  remon- 
strance to  the  fantastic  perverters  of  Gospel  truth, 
human  selfishness  and  presumption,  should  the  at- 
tempt be  successful,  would  soon  effectually  blot  out 
all  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  the  religion  of 
Christ,  and  the  inspired  book  of  Scripture  would  be 
made  to  mean  every  thing  or  nothing  according  as  it 
might  chance  to  fall  into  the  hand  of  this  or  that  self- 
constituted  teacher. 

These  observations  are  introduced  in  this  place 
merely  to  show,  that  if  at  this  late  period  of  the  world, 
after  eighteen  centuries  of  discussion,  too  often  carried 
on  under  feelings  of  morbid  excitement,  the  character 
of  our  religion  has  become  apparently  less  simple 
than  it  was  in  the  primitive  ages  of  the  Church,  and 
if  theology  has  become  in  the  course  of  that  time 
more  of  a  science,  and,  therefore,  as  it  might  seem, 
less  the  exclusive  creature  of  our  moral  apprehen- 
sions, the  fault  is  one  which  it  is  much  more  easy  to 
lament  than  to  correct.  Heresies  are  seldom,  if  ever, 
wilful  perversions  of  Divine  truth  gratuitously  intro- 
duced, but  are  almost  always  the  result  of  over-san- 
guine tempers  or  contracted  understandings  partially 
culling  and  selecting  favourite  passages  from  the 
general  context  of  revelation,  according  to  the  pecu- 
liar tastes  and  prejudices  of  the  disputant.  And  the 
misfortune  is,  that  the  remedy  adopted  by  the  oppos- 
ing party  has  too  often  been  of  the  same  nature  with 
the  original  grievance.  By  inclining  too  strongly  to 
the  side  most  removed  from  the  principles  which 
they  have  attempted  to  refute,  the  assailants  of  heresy 
have  themselves  become  heretical,  and  by  deviating 
from  the  narrow  central  line  have  fallen  into  errors 
not  less  contrary  to  the  tenor  of  revelation  than  those 
ot  their  adversaries.  It  is  thus  that  the  progress  of 
mankind,  in  the  department  of  theology,  has  been 
lor  the  most  part  a  series  of  oscillations  betwixt 
extreme  opinions,  rather  than  a  cautious  process  of 
induction  founded  upon  comprehensive  views  of  the 


41 


)) 


H 


224 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


whole  system  of  revelation.  The  consequence,  ac- 
cordingly, has  been,  that  the  simple  and  beautiful 
scheme,  which  might  originally  have  been  brought 
home  to  the  breast  of  the  most  ignorant  and  illiterate, 
when  inculcating,  exclusively,  the  two  great  funda- 
mental truths  of  justification  and  sanctification,  has, 
from  an  inevitable  necessity,  become  fenced  round 
with  its  peculiar  technical  phraseology  and  precise 
definitions:  and  in  proportion  as  experience  has 
shown  how  numerous  are  the  passages  to  error,  the 
necessity  of  superintendence,  not  so  much,  indeed,  for 
the  purpose  of  coercive  control,  as  of  friendly  admo- 
nition, has  become  daily  more  and  more  manifest. 
It  is  on  this  account  that  the  continual  recurrence  to 
the  first  principles  of  Gospel  truth,  abstracted  from 
their  incidental  accompaniments,  has  become  in  later 
times  of  increasing  importance  to  the  Christian  stu- 
dent. The  complexity  of  character  which  attaches 
to  the  modern  science  of  theology  can,  as  has  been 
already  remarked,  be  effectually  diminished  onlv  by 
a  due  care  in  discriminating  between  the  essentials  of 
religion  as  points  of  doctrine,  and  those  accessories 
which,  however  sanctioned  by  divine  authority,  are 
are  after  all  to  be  considered  solely  as  defensive  super- 
additions. 

The  apostolical  rule  on  the  subject  of  minor  differ- 
ences in  ecclesiastical  opinions  is  a  wise  and  salutary 
one ;  that  we  should  keep  the  devotional  feeling  of 
the  heart  right,  and  the  judgment  of  the  understand- 
ing will,  under  the  Divine  blessing,  follow  in  the  right 
direction.  "Let  us,  as  many  as  be  perfect,  be  thus 
minded  :  and  if  in  any  thing  ye  be  otherwise  minded, 
God  shall  reveal  even  this  unto  you."  Attend  mainly 
to  the  great  and  essential  propositions,  and  all  the 
minor  inferences  will,  of  their  own  accord,  fall  into 
their  proper  place,  and  present  themselves  to  our 
view  in  their  just  proportions.  The  simplicity  of  the 
primitive  age,  indeed,  can  be  no  more  maintained  in 
this  advanced  period  of  the  world,  than  the  artless 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


225 


sentiments  of  boyhood  can  be  retained  in  the  busi- 
ness-like maturity  of  life.  But  integrity  of  intention 
may  still  enable  us,  to  the  last,  to  unite  the  harmless- 
ness  of  the  dove  to  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent.  Even 
now,  notwithstanding  the  necessary  complexity  of  our 
knowledge,  our  faith  may  be  as  pure  as  that  of  the 
early  Christians,  provided  only  that  our  devotional 
feelings  are  as  earnest  as  theirs  :  nor  need  the  many 
safeguards  which  legislative  wisdom,  haying  God's 
oracTes  for  its  guide,  has,  from  time  to  time,  estab- 
lished for  the  encouragement  of  the  sound  doctrine, 
prove  a  greater  cause  of  offence  to  the  fervent  believer 
in  revelation,  than  are  the  wholesome  restraints  of 
secular  law  to  those  who  voluntarily  measure  their 
conduct  by  those  great  rules  of  morality,  the  practice 
of  which  it  is  the  object  of  the  legislator  and  of  the 
magistrate  to  enforce. 


I 


I) 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Of  the  Miracles  recorded  in  the  New  Testament. 

The  object  of  the  present  dissertation  being  to 
remark  upon  the  singular  consistency  of  design  and 
contrivance  which  marks  the  whole  system  of  revela- 
tion, from  first  to  last,  it  will  be  necessary,  in  order 
to  make  our  survey  complete,  that  we  should  take 
notice  of  that  series  of  preternatural  events  which 
accompanied  the  final  promulgation  of  Christianity. 
On  the  supposition  that  the  covenant  of  the  Gospel 
is  a  continuation  and  the  final  completion  of  that 
system  of  special  providential  interference  which  the 
books  of  the  Old  Testament  assert  to  have  been  in 
operation  from  the  very  commencement  of  the  world, 
it  might  naturally  be  expected  that  its  Almighty  Con- 
triver should  signalize  this  momentous  consummation 
of  his  mysterious  purpose  by  some  display  of  his 


226 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


favour,  not  less  striking  than  those  attending  on  his 
earlier  and  less  perfect  dispensations.     This  circum- 
stance, in  fact,  would  he  nothing  more  than  main- 
taining that  uniformity  of  general  character  which  is 
always  found  to  pervade  the  different  works  of  the 
same  author.      Now,  not  only  do  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament  assert  that  such  a  course  of  miracles 
as  might,  from  analogy,  have  been  presumed  upon, 
did  actually  take  place  on  that  latter  occasion,  but  we 
may  observe  also,  that  the  actual  miracles  recorded, 
"whilst  they  bear  testimony  to  the  reality  of  the  Mosaic 
dispensation,  are  distinguished  from  the  earlier  ones 
by  a  peculiar  character  of  beneficence  which  exactly 
accords  with  the  more  merciful  purport  of  that  purer 
law  which  they  were  intended  to  confirm .    The  whole 
design  of  the  mstitutions  of  Moses  was  confessedly 
of  a  harsher  description  than  that  of  Christianity. 
They  required  strict  ritual  obedience  in  all  points. 
"The  man  that  doeth  them  shall  live  in  them,"  was 
their    unbending  injunction  ;    and,   accordingly,  the 
miraculous  powers  of  the  legislator  were  as  often 
employed  in  inflicting  tremendous  judgments  upon 
the  disobedience  of  his  followers,  as  in  rescuing  them 
from  danger,  or  in  relieving  the  pressure  of  their  daily 
wants.     Christ  came  in  a  meeker  and  milder  spirit, 
announcing  the  great  fact  of  man's  reconciliation  with 
his  Maker,  by  gratuitous  redemption  communicated 
through  the  medium  of  faith  ;  and  the  miracles  which 
he  performed  were  all  of  a  benevolent  description. 
Both  arrangements,  therefore,  were  severally  apposite 
to   the    respective    times,   and    circumstances,   and 
designs  of  the  laws  thus  promulgated.     The  Levitical 
ritual  was  given  from  Sinai,  in  thunders  and  earth- 
quakes, and  so  terrible  was  the  sight,  that  Moses 
said,  "I  exceedingly  fear  and  quake."     The  coming 
of  the  Messiah  was  announced  by  angels  proclaiming 
"peace  on  earth,  and  good  will  towards  men."     A 
large   portion  of  the  miraculous  machinery  of  the 
earlier  covenant,  again,  consisted  of  prophetic  antici- 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


227 


pations  of  the  future  spiritual  prospects  of  mankind. 
This,  as  has  been  already  observed,  was  peculiarly 
well  fitted  to  the  character  of  a  merely  provisional 
law,  the  most  important  declarations  ot  which  were 
all  of  them  prospective.  The  prophecies  of  the  New 
Testament,  on  the  contrary,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Apocalypse  of  St.  John,  are  thinly  scattered,  and 
even  where  they  occur  resemble  rather  the  incidental 
overflowings  of  a  super-human  knowledge,  extending 
over  futurity,  than  special  forewarnings,  given  for 
some  yet  undeveloped  purpose.  The  probable  reason 
of  this  would  seem  to  be,  that  the  Divine  arrange- 
ments being  now  complete,  the  attention  of  mankind, 
which  previously  required  to  be  turned  in  a  forward 
direction,  was  now  more  suitably  rendered  retro- 
spective. 

But  if,  for  the  causes  now  alleged,  the  gift  of  pro- 
phecy would  appear  to  have  been  a  less  appropriate 
qualification  of  the  inspired  teachers  of  the  new  dis- 
pensation than  of  those  of  the  old,  the  same  argument 
would  not  apply  to  the  question  respecting  miracles 
of  another  description.  It  may  be  confidently  asserted 
that  the  human  mind  could  be  aroused  from  the  in- 
veterate associations  of  worldly  habits,  and  have  its 
attention  turned  away  from  that  system  of  selfish 
indulgence  so  natural  to  its  feelings,  to  pursuits  of  a 
directly  opposite  description,  only  by  the  astounding 
thunder-clap  of  a  voice  confessedly  speaking  with 
more  than  mortal  authority.  It  is  in  vain  to  quote, 
in  contradiction  to  this  remark,  the  trite  aphorism, 
that  truth  requires  only  to  be  stated  in  order  to  be 
assented  to.  The  whole  history  of  human  nature  is 
a  refutation  of  this  observation,  if  intended  to  apply 
to  the  inculcation  of  moral  and  religious  truth.  The 
conscience  of  every  systematic  sinner  must  be  alarmed 
before  it  can  be  effectively  awakened  :  the  appeal  to 
the  attention  of  the  worldly-minded  must  come  in  the 
form  of  an  authoritative  demand,  and  not  of  an  humble 
request  for  a  hearing.     For  the  truth  of  this  remark 


I 


',y^ 


228 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


we  challenge  that  intuitive  knowledge  of  the  heart  of 
man  which  every  person  who  has  heen  thrown  into 
much  practical  intercourse  with  general  society  cannot 
fail,  in  some  degree,  of  possessing.     Miracles,  accord- 
ingly we  are  informed  by  Scripture,  have,  both  under 
the  former  and  the  latter  covenants,  accompanied  all 
special  communications  from  heaven.    Admitting  the 
fact  of  such  communications  being  not   otherwise 
improbable,  (a  point  which  it  has  been  the  aim  of  the 
forecToing  observations  to  prove,)  it  is  so  tar  trom 
unreasonable  that  they  should  have  been  specially 
ratified  by  the  evidence  of  miracles,  that,  in  tact  we 
cannot  conceive  their  effecting  their  i^ntended  object 
without  such  adventitious  aid.     If  such  extraordinary 
testimony  was  necessary  for  the  estabhshment  ot  the 
religion  of  Moses,  it  was,  clearly,  not  less  so  for  the 
supersedence  of  that  same  religion  by  the  Gospel  of 
Christ      Institutions  which  had  been  sanctioned  by 
the  most  portentous    deviations  from  the  ordinary 
course  of  nature,  could  not,  and  in  strictness  ought 
not  to  be  expected  to  give  way  to  the  preaching  ot  a 
few  individuals,  producing  no  equivalent  authority  in 
proof  of  their  Divine  mission. 

Thus  much,  then,  may  be  confidently  urged  in  reply 
to  the  objections  of  those  persons  who  profess  to  be 
startled  and  offended  by  the  miraculous  phenomena 
which  we  read  of  as  having  attended  the  appearance 
of  Christ.  Grant  his  mission  to  have  been  a  real 
one,  and  it  were  a  mere  gratuitous  scepticism  to  dis- 
pute  the  supernatural  powers  either  of  himselt  or  ol 
his  authorized  followers.  The  facts  in  question  be 
it  remembered,  are  vouched  for,  unless  the  whole 
series  of  revelation  be  a  fiction,  not  merely  by  their 
own  peculiar  attesting  witnesses,  but  substantially 
also  by  those  who  bore  testimony  to  the  prodigies 
wrought  by  Moses  and  the  Jewish  prophets.  It  the 
attestation  confirmatory  of  the  miracles  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  strong,  the  affirmative  inference  is,  by 
a  necessary  course  of  argument,  reflected  onward 


WITH   HUMAN  REASON. 


229 


from  them  upon  those  of  the  latter  dispensation  also, 
as  integral  portions  of  the  same  continuous  process 
of  Divine  interference. 

To  this  consistency,  then,  of  the  whole  design,  we 
would  appeal,  for  the  purpose  of  removing  from  every 
candid  and  impartial  mind  any  involuntary  prepos- 
session occasioned  by  the  survey  of  isolated  and 
detached  parts.  It  is  unfair  to  the  infinitely  accumu- 
lated evidences  of  our  religion  to  consider  it  as 
depending  for  its  proofs  upon  a  series  of  unconnected 
interpositions  of  Providence,  each  requiring  to  be 
separately  vouched  for  by  its  own  peculiarly  and 
entirely  distinct  arguments.  The  proper  point  of  view 
in  which  it  ought  to  be  re^jarded  is  that  of  one  great 
continuous  miracle,  to  which,  until  the  period  of  its 
final  completion,  generation  after  generation  of  eye- 
witnesses bore  their  successive  buT  really  concurrent 
testimony. 

There  is,  however,  it  must  be  at  the  same  time 
observed  a  degree  of  contemporaneous  evidence 
attaching  to  the  miracles  recorded  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, still  more  cogent  if  possible,  even  than  that 
which  obliges  us  to  assent  to  the  authenticity  of  those 
related  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures.  That  is  to  say, 
from  the  circumstance  of  their  having  been  performed 
at  a  later  period  of  the  world,  and  in  an  age  of  more 
advanced  literature,  the  idea  of  explaining  them  away 
by  referring  them  to  mistake  or  deception  is  rendered 
still  more  completely  untenable.  "These  things," 
as  St.  Paul  observed  of  them,  "  were  not  done  in  a 
corner ;"  but  the  publicity  to  which  they  were  ex- 
posed, and  which  he  so  confidently  challenges,  was 
that  uf  jealous  adversaries  rather  than  of  friends. 
That  they  Avere  able  to  stand  the  test  of  this  search- 
ing scrutiny  is  certain  from  the  fact  of  the  rapid 
spread  of  the  doctrines,  in  confirmation  of  which 
those  miracles  were  appealed  to.  Such  is  the  obvious 
conclusion  which  we  are  compelled  to  arrive  at,  when 
we  look  to  the  singular  transactions  related  in  the 

20 


\ 


230 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


H 


historical  books  of  the  New  Testament,  and  compare 
them  with  what  we  there  read  respecting  the  other- 
wise  inexplicable  growth,  at  the  period  .referred  to, 
of  the  infant  Christian  Church.     But  it  is  not  from 
these   perhaps   partial   sources    alone   that   we   are 
obli-ed  to  derive  our  evidence.     The  allusions  of 
cont'^emporary  profane  writers  to  the  as  yet  small, 
but  rapidly  increasing,  community  of  Christians  is 
exactly  what  might  be  expected,  on  the  supposition 
that  the  account  given  by  the  New  Testament  is  the 
true  one.     They  are  merely  incidental,  indeed,  and 
crive  their  testimony  rather  by  implication  than  by 
express  and  direct  assertion,  but  this  very  circum- 
stance  only  renders  it  more  intrinsically  probable. 
In  the  first  place,  the  broad  outline  of  facts,  as  we 
find  them  occasionally  referred  to  in  the  works  ol 
that  period,  though  often  vague,  are  all  at  least  per- 
fectly in  harmony  with  the  Scriptural  account.     We 
know,  for  instance,  as  assuredly  as  we  do  any  ot  the 
transactions  of  modern  history,  that  towards  the  close 
of  the   reign  of  Tiberius  a  peculiar  sect  grew  up 
amongst   the  Jews,   who   confidently  asserted  that 
occurrences  of  the   most   extraordinary  description 
had  taken  place  at  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  surrounding 
terrilorv,  within  an  extremely  short  period  from  that 
time,  some  of  them  in  the  presence  of  large  multi- 
tudes of  witnesses,  and  one,  the  most  remarkable, 
in  the  face  of  the  whole  assembled   population  ot 
Judea.     We  know  that,  notwithstanding  this  appeal 
to   public  notorietv,  which,   if  the  statenrient  were 
untrue,   carried   with   it   its   own   refutation,    these 
accounts  were  received  as  authentic  by  vast  nunibers 
of  persons  competent  to  judge  of  the  reality  ot  the 
facts  many  of  whom  bore  testimony,  by  their  blood, 
to  the  sincerity  of  their  belief.     We  know  that  the 
doctrines  thus  originating  pervaded,  within  a  very 
short  period  of  years,  considerable  poriions  of  Asia 
of  Greece,  of  Italy,  and  most  probably  of  Spain  and 
Gaul ;  and  that  though  the  most  terrific  persecutions 


V 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


231 


awaited  their  professors,  vast  numbers  were  found 
even   in  Rome  itself,  who  submitted  to  endure  the 
most   cruel  deaths   rather  than   abjure  their  faith. 
But,  as  has  just  now  been  observed,  some  of  the 
casual  circumstances,  related  incidentally,  and  with- 
out any  intended  reference  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  early  Christians,  by  contemporary  profane  his- 
torians, afford,  where  they  least  intended  it,  a  singu- 
lar collateral  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  the  Gospel 
history.     Thus  we  find,  in  the  fourth  book  of  Taci- 
tus*s  history,  a  strange  anecdote  related  of  the  Em- 
peror Vespasian  (who,  be  it  remembered,  had  passed 
a  considerable  portion  of  his  military  career  in  Judea,) 
that  when   he   visited   Egypt,   subsequently  to  his 
accession  to  the  empire,  he  cured  by  a  touch  a  man 
afflicted  with   total   blindness.     It  is  impossible  to 
read  the  original  account  of  this  transaction  without 
observing  its   strong  resemblance   to   some   of  the 
miracles  performed  by  our  Saviour.     How,  it  natu- 
rally occurs  to  us  to  ask,  could  so  strange  an  idea 
occur  to  a  Roman  Emperor,  the  occupier  of  a  throne 
which  had  so  recently  been  filled  by  such  profligate 
characters  as  Vitellius,  Otho,  and  Nero,  as  that  of 
attempting  to  perform  a  preternatural  cure  of  this 
description?     None  of  the  most  insanely  arrogant  of 
his  predecessors  had  ever  made  the  like  experiment. 
We  surely  cannot  doubt  but  that  Vespasian's  long 
residence  in  Judea  had  made  him  familiar  with  the 
recorded  facts  of  our  Saviour's  history,  and  with  the 
more  recent  miracles  of  his  disciples,  and  that  he 
was  led  by  vanity,  or  curiosity,  to  attempt  perform- 
ing  the   like  wonders.     That  he  succeeded  we  of 
course  cannot  believe  ;  though  it  is  most  probable 
that  plausible  testimony  would  not  be  wanting  to 
support  the  claims  of  an  emperor  ambitious  of  this 
peculiar  kind  of  reputation.     To  the  same  effect  are 
the  two  memorable  passages  which  occur  in  Tacitus 
and   Suetonius,  where   those   writers   apply  to  the 
person  of  Vespasian  the  ancient  Jewish  prophecy 


w 


!  i 


232  CONSISTENCY  OF   KEVELATIOM 

respecting  the  Messiah,  whose  advent  was  looked 
Kbout^hat  period.     The  words  of  the  latter  his- 
torian are  very  remarkable.     "  Percrebuerat  Onente 
mo  vetus  et  constans  opinio  esse  in  fatis  "»/<"«">'«;« 
Jud<ta  nrofeci,  rerum  potirentur.     Id  de  ImP"»  "/e 
Romano  Quantum  postea  eventu  patu.t    pr^d.ctum 
Judsei  ad  se  trahentes  rebellarunt."    In  this  state- 
ment it  is  impossible  not  to  recognise  the  expectation 
then  prevalent  among  the  Jews  respecting  the  ap- 
T)roachin<'  accomplishment  of  the  seventy  weeks  of 
Daniel  which  we'learn  from  Josephus  to  have  led  to 
those   many  insurrections,   under  the  guidance  of 
fanatics  ani  impostors,  which  eventually  caused  he 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  dispersion  of  the 

Jewish  nation.  .  r 

Bui  (to  return  from  the  indirect  testimony  of  pro- 
fane  to  the  direct   evidence  of  sacred   history)  we 
shall  not,  we  conceive,  be  chargeable  with  the  fallacy 
of  proving  a  thing  by  itself,  if  we  appeal  to  the 
?nsS  writers  themselves,  as  aflfordin-  the  strong- 
esu^ossible  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  the  rmrades 
thev  record.     It  has  been  already  observed    that  the 
prophetic  character,  with  the  exception  of  the  apoca- 
Fvpse  o^  St.  John,  attaches  much  less  to  the  books  of 
E  New  than  to  those  of  the  Old  Testament.     That 
there    are    however,    predicti^ons    contained   m    the 
Christian   Scriptures,   the   fulfilment   of  which  has 
beeT  so  literally  accomplished  as  to  leave  no  possj. 
bility  of  doubt   respecting   the  inspiration  ot    their 
authors,  provided  we  admit  the  f  ^H^n^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
works    n  question,  is,  on  the  other  hand,  perfectly 

Tertain.  Those  of  St.  Paul,  which  .f  !"<l^?^JVh  ?  t^an 
ruptions  which  would  one  day  prevail  in  the  Christ  an 
Church,  and  which  so  accurately  describe  some  ot  the 
leading  abominations  of  Popery,  cannot  indeed  be  got 
rTof  even  by  the  presumption  of  their  being  a 
forgery,  as  they  are,  at^U  events,  demonstrably  of  a 
much  earlier  date  than  can  be  assi-ned  to  the  first 
origin  of  the  abuses  which  they  denounce.     But 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


233 


going  farther  back  in  time,  and  referring  to  the  pro- 
phetic denunciations  of  our  Saviour  respecting  the 
approaching  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  we  may  con- 
fidently assert  of  them,  that  if  the  date  assigned  to 
them  be  accurate,  they  prove  to  demonstration  that 
he  who  uttered  them  was  possessed  of  more  than 
human   knowledge.     It   is   impossible   to  read  the 
twenty-first  chapter  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  and  other 
similar  passages  in  the  four  Evangelists,  respecting 
the  feartul  calamities  which  were  in  preparation  for 
that  devoted  city,  and  then  to  compare  them  with  the 
account  given  by  Josephus  of  what  actually  passed 
during  the  horrible  circumstances  of  the  siege  by 
which  it  was  overpowered,  without  assenting  to  the 
certainty  of  this  conclusion.      In  the  twenty-third 
chapter  of  St.  Luke  we  read,  for  instance,  that  our 
Redeemer    addressed   the    following    words   to   the 
women  who  followed  him  with  their  lamentations  to 
the  place  of  his  crucifixion : — "  Daughters  of  Jerusa- 
lem, weep  not  for  me,  but  weep  for  yourselves  and 
your  children ;  for,  behold  !  the  days  are  coming  in 
which  they  shall  say.  Blessed  are  the  barren,  and  the 
wombs  that  never  bare,  and  the  paps  which  never 
gave  suck.      Then  shall  they  begin  to  say  to  the  motiU' 
tains^fall  on  us,  and  to  the  hills,  cover  tts,^^  If  we  wish 
to  understand  the  allusion  contained  in  the  latter 
part  of  this  address,  we,  have  only  to  turn  to  the 
seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  chapters  of  the  sixth  book 
of  Josephus's  Wars  of  the  Jews,  and  we  there  find 
that  when  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  under  Titus,  was 
drawing  to  its    last  crisis,   many  of  the  mutineers 
within  the  walls,  who  had  first  stirred  up  the  rebel- 
lion against  the  Roman  power,  and  who  had  exercised, 
in  the  course  of  the  war,  the  most  atrocious  cruelties 
against  their  own  countrymen,  desperate  of  pardon 
from  either  party,  betook  themselves,  as  their  last 
resource,  to  the  excavations  formed  under  the  town  by 
the  working  of  the  quarries,  and  there  perished  to  the 
number  of  more  tlian  two  thousand  by  suicide,  by  mutual 

20* 


2U 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATIOx^ 


violence,  and  by  hunger.  There  is,  assuredly,  none 
of  the  calculated  ambiguity  of  false  oracles,  conceal- 
ing their  real  ignorance  under  the  shelter  of  equi- 
vocal expressions,  observable  in  this  singular  pro- 
phecy. What  proof,  then,  have  we  that  this  predic- 
tion was  uttered  nearly  forty  years  before  the  events 
which  it  foretold,  and  that  Jerusalem  was  still  in 
existence  at  the  time  that  it  was  thus  recorded  by  the 
Evangelist  in  the  Gospel  which  bears  his  name? 
The  argument,  which  lies  in  small  compass,  may  be 
shortly  stated  thus.  The  prophecy  above  quoted 
occurs,  as  has  been  stated,  in  St.  Luke's  Gospel. 
But  the  same  author,  in  his  preface  to  his  book  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  refers  to  his  Gospel  as  di  former 
treatise.  The  date  of  the  book  of  the  Acts,  then,  is 
confessedly  later  than  that  of  the  Gospel  of  this 
writer.  But  the  book  of  the  Acts  itself  breaks  off 
suddenly,  after  relating  the  conclusion  of  the  first 
imprisonment  of  Paul  in  Rome,  which  is  gene- 
rally supposed  to  have  terminated  about  the  year  of 
Christ  65  or  66;  that  is  to  say,  four  or  five  years 
before  the  capture  of  Jerusalem.  The  proof,  then, 
of  the  real  antiquity  of  the  prediction  contained  in 
the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke,  will  turn  upon  the  evidence 
which  we  have  of  that  of  the  book  of  the  Acts. 
Now,  that  this  latter  work  was  written  very  soon 
after  the  occurrence  of  the  last  events  which  it 
records,  is  obvious  from  the  strongest  internal  evi- 
dence. It  is  impossible  to  suppose  that  the  writer 
was  acquainted  with  the  interesting  transactions 
which  subsequently  to  the  above  date  marked  the 
few  closing  years  of  the  life  of  the  great  apostle  of 
the  Gentiles,  when  he  composed  this  history,  and 
that  he  purposely  abstained  from  relating  them. 
We  may  confidently,  then,  assume  the  date  of  this 
production  to  have  been  that  just  now  stated  ;  whilst, 
for  the  actual  authenticity  of  the  work,  as  the  genuine 
production  of  one  who  himself  witnessed  the  events 
which  he  relates,  we  may  at  once  appeal  to  one  of 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


235 


the  ablest  and  most  unanswerable  arguments  which 
modern  literature  has  produced.  We  know  not,  in 
fact,  how  it  is  possible  to  escape  from  the  demonstra- 
tion afforded  by  Paley  of  the  authenticity  of  the  book 
of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  of  the  Epistles  of 
St.  Paul.  But  this  proof,  once  established,  extends 
wider  than  the  peculiar  purpose,  to  establish  which 
that  acute  writer  adduced  it.  These  books,  it  should 
be  remembered,  necessarily  presuppose  the  existence 
not  of  the  Gospel  of  Luke  only,  but  the  authenticity 
of  at  least  a  large  portion  of  the  miraculous  facts 
detailed  by  the  other  Evangelists,  and  of  all  the  main 
doctrines  connected  ^Vith  the  theory  of  our  redemp- 
tion. It  is  quite  inconceivable  that  they  should  be 
genuine,  and  that  the  histories  to  which  they  appear 
uniformly  to  refer  should  be  supposititious.*    In  fact, 

•  The  following  extracts  from  tlie  general  remarks  subjoined  by  the 
learned  Dr.  Laurence,  the  present  Archbishop  of  Cashel,  to  his  publica- 
tion of  the  singular  apocryphal  work,  "  Ascensio  IsaiaB  Vatis,"  contain  so 
wrong  a  confirmation  of  the  fact  of  the  implicit  belief  attached,  within 
ihe  limits  of  the  apostolical  age  itself,  to  one  of  the  most  frequently  ques- 
tioned preternatural  events  recorded  by  the  Evangelists,  namely,  the 
miraculous  conception  of  Christ,  that  we  shall  make  no  apology  for  their 
length. 

"From  internal  testimony,  of  a  still  more  definite  description,  I  con- 
ceive that  even  the  specific  time  of  its  composition  (that  of  the  work  here 
alluded  to)  may  be  satisfactorily  ascertained.  It  speaks  only  of  one  per- 
■secution  of  Christians  as  taking  place  between  the  establishment  of  Chris- 
tianity and  the  day  of  Judgment.  This  must,  necessarily,  have  been  the 
persecution  under  Nero.  Had  the  author  lived  so  late  as  the  reign  of 
Domitian,  he  would  scarcely  have  limited  the  scene  of  Christian  suffer- 
ing to  a  single  persecution,  and  have  foretold  the  dissolution  of  all  things 
ms  shortly  succeeding  it.  Nor,  indeed,  are  we  left  to  mere  conjecture 
relative  to  the  particular  persecution  alluded  to ;  but  demonstrable  proof 
«xists,  that  it  could  only  have  been  the  first.  For  Isaiah  is  introduced  as 
prophesying,  that  at  itscommencemenL  '  Serial  shall  descend,  the  mighty 
^ngel,  the  prince  of  this  world,  which  ne  has  possessed  from  its  creation. 
He  shall  descend  from  the  firmament  in  the  form  of  a  man,  an  impious 
monarch,  the  murderer  of  his  mother ;  in  the  form  of  him,  the  sove- 
reign of  the  world."  Now,  it  is  evident  that  the  singular  circumstance 
>icre  stated  of  the  arch  fiend  Berial,  possessing  the  body  of  "an  impious 
monarch,  the  murderer  of  his  mother,'^  is  only  applicable  to  iVero,  who 
is  recorded  to  have  stabbed  his  mother,  Agrippina.  But  something  more 
precise  still  follows.  For  we  are  further  told,  that  he  shall  have  power 
**  three  years,  seven  months,  and  twenty-seven  days."  The  burning 
of  Rome  took  place  on  the  19th  June,  ad.  64.  The  crime  of  this  con- 
flasration,  which  excited  universal  abhorrence,  Nero  imputed  to  the 
Christians  and  from  hence  sprung  the  first  Dersecution.    Historians  ara 


236 


CONSISTENCY   OF  REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


237 


from  the  first  opening  of  the  narrative  of  the  Ne^ 
Testament  down  to  the  time  when  the  canon  of  the 
Christian  Scriptures  was  universally  acknowledged 
to  be  such  as  we  now  receive  it,  there  is  no  one  open 

not  agreed  as  to  the  exact  time  of  its  commencement.  But  Moeheim, 
upoiTauihority  which  he  res,)eci5s  fixes  it  to  the  ,»^»"J^  «^^^^^»"^';^^^^^ 
AD  64  If  then,  we  compute  backwards  to  the  death  of  Nero,  which 
happeneil  upon  June  9,  a.d.  68,  the  period  of  three  years,  seven  rnojiths, 
andhteuty-seven  days,  (considering  the  months  as  lunar,  and  the  year 
68  as  a  leap-year,)  we  shall  find,  that  the  day  allotted  to  the  commence- 
ment of  uirial's  pi)wer  falls  upon  the  30th  day  of  October,  a.d.  64;  a 
coincidence,  I  apprehend,  sufficiently  close  to  prove  that  the  persecution 
referred  to  must,  indisputably,  have  been  the  first. 

"The  conclusion,  then,  will  be,  that  our  author  wrote  after  the  death 
of  Nero;  that  is,  after  June  9,  a.d.  68.  But  the  most  strikmg  circum- 
^nce  still  remains  to  be  noticed.  For,  from  ^^atimmedtaiely  follows, 
it  appears,  that  although  he  must  have  written  after  the  9th  ol  June, 
A.D  63,  he  must  likewise  have  written  fte/orc  the  close  of  the  year  6^ 
1^  he  very  next  verse  but  one  to  that,  which  relates  the  downfall  of 
Nero's  tyranny,  it  is  added,  "  After  three  hundred  ^ndjhirty -two  days 
the  Lord  shall  come  with  his  angels  and  holy  now.r.,  l^^om  the  seventh 
heaven,  in  the  splendour  of  that  heaven  and  s'liall  drag  Berial  and  hia 
Pers'  into  GeLnna."  And  again,  "Then  shall  »he  voice  of  the 
beloved  rebuke  in  wrath  the  heaven,  and  the  dry  land  the  mountains 
and  the  hills,  the  cities,  and  the  deserts,  the  north,  the  angel  of  the 
Bun,  the  moo,\,  and  everv  thin^  where  Berial  has  been  seen  a»^  rnam. 
rested  in  this  world.  There  sliall  als.^  be  o  resurrection  and  judg- 
ment in  those  days,  while  the  Beloved  shall  cause  to  ascend  from 
w'mAretTconsume  all  the  ungodly,  who  shall  be  as  if  they  never 
had  been  created:^  Had  the  work  been  written  subsequently  to  the 
tree  hundred  and  thirty-two  days  which  followed  the  death  of  Nero 
the  author  of  It  could  never,  surely,  have  been  absurd  enough  to  fix 

a  time  for  the  conclusion  of  the  world    ^V^?  Z'^rin  .nil  r^re^^^ 

the  day  of  Judgment,  which  time  had  a  r^ady elapsed!   .1" '""  P^,""** 

Bion  that  the  Lord  was  indeed  at  hand    particularly  after  the  bk^^ 

scenes  of  systematic  torture  which  he  had  witn^d,  he  n?'gbt,  "ideed, 

have  ventured  to  predict  the  almost  immediate  advent  of  Christ  to  judg. 

menttSm't  is  impossible  to  conceive,  that  in  his  sober  senses  he  cou^ 

have  referred  the  consummation  of  all  things  lo^  past  P^^'^k.  L^~^ 

certain,  therefore,  if  the  premises  from  ^^'^^b  I  have  argued  tecorr^^ 

that  the  book  must  have  been  composed  towards  the  cloee  of  the  year  ooy 

or  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  69."  .^  ^„,«  . 

The  Archbishoiv  after  some  further  observations,  proceeds  to  state  .— 

*  I  would  remark,  that  in  the  work  before  us,  the  miraculous  concep^ 

tion  isdistinctly  and  unequivocally  a««ened:  which  circumstanc^^^^^^^ 

incontestible  proof,  if  my  previous  reasoning  be  ^'^''7^^:  ^^/i,^^^;^5^^^^ 

on  record  at  no  great  distance  of  time  from  the  period  when  ft.  Matthew  » 

Gospel  iuself  is  said  bv  Iren^us  to  have  been  written,  .'"^eed,  he  author 

of  the  "  Ascension  of  Isaiah"  seems  to  have  borrowed  the  outline  ol  hia 

narrative  from  that  very  Ga^pel.  ^«,>,^r    Maru 

"The  Evangelist  thus  expresses  himself:  "  W^hen  his  mother  Mary 
was  betrothed  to  Joseph,  before  they  came  together,  ^*,^«  ^°/ /^JlJ 
teith  child  of  the  Holy  Ghost.   Then  Joseph,  her  husband,  was  mmdea 


interval,  however  short,  in  which  we  can,  with  the 
slightest  degree  of  probability,  imagine  the  imposi- 
tion of  a  set  of  forged  documents  upon  mankind  under 
the   form  of  authentic  revelation.     Some  consider- 
able period  must  always  elapse  before  any  unfounded 
traditions  could,  under  the  most  favourable  circum- 
stances, obtain  any  general  belief.     But  the  interval 
which  elapsed  between  the  crucifixion  of  Christ  and 
that  time  when  we  find  the  early  Christian  writers 
appealing  to  the  Christian  Scriptures,  such  as  we  now 
possess  them,  with  the  most  unsuspecting  reliance 
upon  their  authenticity,  is  much  too  short  to  admit, 
with  the  remotest  degree  of  probability,  of  this  sup- 
position.    What   possible    combination   of   circum- 
stances,  for   instance,   could    induce   well-inforrned 
Englishmen  of  the  present  day  to  receive  implicitly 
as  uue  a  series  of  forged  documents,  the  production 
of  unknown  persons,   at  some  intermediate  period, 
which  should  positively  assert  that  the  most  stupen- 
dous miracles  were  publicly  exhibited  in  London  at 
the  time  of  the  accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover 
to  the  British  throne ;   and  could  make   them  lay 
down   their   lives   in   confirmation  of  their  belief? 

to  out  her  away  privily.''  Our  author  relates  the  same  occurrences, 
aSm^t  in  the  same^ansuage  :  "  1  beheld  a  woman,  by  name  Mary,  who 
teas  a  virgin,  and  betrothed  to  a  man,  by  name  Joseph  I  saw  that 
after  she  was  betrothed  she  was  found  pregnant ;  and  that  Joseph 
^^  inclined  to  put  her  away."  The  latter  part  of  the  account  is  thus 
i^lated  by  the  Evangelist :  "  Then  Joseph,  being  raised  from  sleep,  did 
as  the  angel  of  the  Lord  had  bidden  him,  and  took  unto  him  his  wUe: 
Vnd  knew  her  not  till  she  had  hroughtfor  th  her  first-born  son'' J^  ah 
a  little  variation,  it  is  thus  related  by  our  author :  "  Then  the  Angel  of 
the  Spirit  appeared  in  the  world ;  after  which  Joseph  did  not  put  away 
Mary,  .  .  neither  did  he  approach  her,  but  preserved  her  as  a 
holv  virgin,  notwithstanding  her  pregnancy." 

-From  a  collation  of  these  resi)ecnivfc  passages  it  must  appear,  I  ap- 
preheni  to  e^ery  critic  whose  mind  is  not  warped  by  tbeolog.cal  preju- 
Sices,  that  the  lalter  account  was  borrowed  from  the  f^'-^^^^;- ^^^^"^ '^  «^' 
it  must  be  obvious,  that  the  narrative  of  the  miraculous  conception  exunt 
n  all  the  manuscripts  and  versions  of  St.  Matthew's  G^i^l,  was  "ot  a 
Bubeequent  interpolatic.n,  but  an  original  part  of  that  Gospel.  Nor  (ioe« 
it  seem  lesB  cerJa.n,  ihat  the  same  narrative  was  believed,  af  well  by 
Jewish  as  by  Heathen  converts,  long  before  the  lermmaiion  of  the  first 


century,"  &c. 


/ 


/ 


238 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


239 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


And  yet  the  period  is  not  so  long  from  the  date  of 
the  crucifixion  to  the  time  when  Justin  Martyr  wrote 
his  Apologies  for  Christianity,  (works  teeming  with 
direct  quotations  from  the  New  Testament,  as  we 
now  receive  it,  and  with  incidental  allusions  to  the 
sentiments  of  those  inspired  writings,  which  show  how 
completely  they  had  become  part  and  parcel  of  his 
opinions,)  as  it  is  from  the  accession  of  George  I.  to 
the  present  day.  If,  however,  the  writings  of  the 
New  Testament  be  really  authentic,  then  we  must 
confidently  assert  of  them,  as  we  have  already  done 
on  a  former  occasion,  of  the  histories  of  the  Old 
Testament,  that  they  afford  irrefragable  proof  of  the 
reality  of  the  miracles  which  they  relate.  It  is  im- 
possible that  the  books  themselves  could  be  contem- 
poraneous with  the  times,  the  history  of  which  they 
profess  to  record,  that  they  should  have  been  received 
as  worthy  of  credit  by  the  parties  to  whom  they 
were  addressed,  and  yet,  that  matters  of  such  palpa- 
ble and  accessible  notoriety  should  have  been  lalsely 
stated  in  them.  "  For  revealed  religion,"  said  Dr. 
Johnson,  a  few  days  before  his  death,  and  the  dying 
declarations  of  such  a  man  surely  ought  to  carry 
with  them  no  small  authority,  "for  revealed  religion 
there  is  such  historical  evidence  as,  upon  any  subject 
not  religious,  would  have  left  no  doubt.  Had  the 
facts  recorded  in  the  New  Testament  been  mere  civil 
occurrences,  no  one  would  have  called  in  question 
the  testimony  by  which  they  are  established ;  but  the 
importance  annexed  to  them,  amounting  to  nothing 
less  than  the  salvation  of  mankind,  raises  a  cloud 
in  our  minds,  and  creates  doubts  unknown  upon  any 
other  subject.  With  respect  to  evidence,  we  have 
not  such  evidence  that  Caisar  died  in  the  capitol  as 
that  Christ  died  in  the  manner  related." 


CHAPTER  XXVn. 

Of  the  Evidence  of  the  Truth  of  Revelation  afforded  by  the  low 
Condition  in  Life,  the  absence  of  Literary  Acquirements^  and  the 
impossibility  of  Confederacy  in  its  respective  Promulgators. 

The   character  and  condition  in  life  of  the  first 
preachers  of  Christianity,  and  of  revelation  in  general, 
suggest,  again,   another  argument  in  favour  of  the 
truth  of  their  doctrines,  which  it  would  perplex  the 
Infidel  to  overthrow.      The  following  reply  of  Lac- 
tantius,  to  the  assertions  of  one  of  the  early  impugners 
and  persecutors  of  our  faith,  may  be  appositely  applied, 
not  to  the  case  of  Peter  and  Paul  only,  but  to  that  of 
almost  all  the  respective  authors  of  the  inspired  books, 
both  Jewish  and  Christian.    "  Tantum  abest  a  Divinis 
literis  repugnantia,  quantum  iile   (adversarius  vide- 
licet) abfuit  a   veritate   et   fide.      Praecipue    tamen 
Paulum  Petrumque  laceravit  ceterosque  discipulos, 
tanquam  fallaciie  seminatores,  quos  eosdem  tamen 
rudes  et  indoctos  fuisse  testatus  est ;  nam  quosdam 
eorum    piscatorio   artificio   fecisse  quaestum  :    quasi 
ae<''re  ferret  quod  illam  rem  non  Aristophanes  aliquis 
aut  Aristarchus  comrmenlatus  sit.      Abfuit  ergo  ah 
his  fingendi  voluntas  et  astutia,  quoniam  rudes  fue- 
runt.     Aut  quis  possit  indoctus  apta  inter  se  et  cohae- 
rentia  fingere,  quum  philosophorum  doctissimi  Plato 
et  Aristoteles  et  Epicurus  et  Zenon  ipsi  sibi  repug- 
nantia et  contraria  dixerint  ?  haec  est  enim  mendaci- 
orum   natura,   ut   cohaerere   non   possint.      Illorum 
autem  traditio,  quia  vera  est,  quadrat  undique,  ac  sibi 
tota  consentit ;  et  ideo  persu:^det  quia  constanti  ra- 
lione  suffuUa  est."      This  observation,  which  carries 
with  it  great  weight,  when  directed  to  the  various 
component  parts   of  Scripture  individually,   is   per- 
fectly unanswerable  when  applied  to  the  entire  and 
consistent  scheme  of  revelation  as  a  whole.     Seldom, 


240 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


J  » 


if  ever,  is  any  one  single  impostor  entirely  accordant 
with  himseli :  a  succession  of  impostors,  writing  at 
separate  and  remote  periods  the  one  from  the  other, 
cannot  by  any  possibility  be  so.  And  yet  where, 
from  the  fall  of  Adam  downwards,  to  the  final  close 
of  the  work  of  inspiration,  can  we  detect  one  single 
violation  of  unity  of  purpose  in  the  theory  of  God's 
interferences  for  the  redemption  of  mankind, — 
where  point  out  one  absent  link  from  the  chain  of 
connected  consequences  ?  The  whole  is  obviously  the 
grouping  and  calculated  contrivance  of  one  master- 
mind. 

Had  the  self-same  tenets,  with  those  promulgated 
in  Holy  Writ,  been  first  taught  by  any  of  the  great 
moral  sages  of  Greece  or  Rome,  it  is  evident  that, 
although  that  circumstance  ought  not  in  reality  to 
have  operated  against  the  value  of  their  instructions, 
it  would  certainly  have  suggested  a  plausible  argu- 
ment against  the  Divine  authority  attaching  to  them, 
of  which  the  sceptic  would  not  have  failed  to  take 
advantage.  No  reason,  it  might  have  been  said,  can 
be  adduced  to  show  that  a  first  rate  understanding, 
taking  into  consideration  all  the  anomalous  features 
of  man's  moral  constitution,  might  not,  by  a  lucky 
accident,  have  lighted  upon  such  a  plausible  vindica- 
tion of  God's  Providence,  in  his  dealings  with  the 
human  race,  as  the  Christian  theory  supposes.  The 
great  superiority  of  such  a  theory  over  those  invented 
by  the  several  founders  of  the  other  great  schools  of 
philosophy,  it  might  have  been  urged,  no  more  proves 
the  Divine  inspiration  of  its  promulgator,  than  the 
superior  beauties  of  the  works  of  Homer  or  Shak- 
speare,  to  those  of  most  other  poets,  would  neces- 
sarily oblige  us  to  attribute  their  peculiar  degree  of 
genius  to  a  like  Divine  source.  Undoubtedly  it  would 
nave  been  difficult  to  meet  successfully  objections  of 
this  nature.  As  there  is  no  assignable  and  definite 
limit  to  the  inventive  powers  of  the  human  mind,  it 
is  evident  that  the  production  of  any  one  work,  of 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


241 


even  unprecedented  merit,  by  one  individual,  would 
only  be  another  and  a  new  measure  afforded  us  of 
what  the  intellect  of  man  can  achieve,  and  would 
supply  no  proof  whatever  that  such  individual  was 
inspired.  But  the  whole  canon  of  Scripture,  as  we 
possess  it,  is  a  complete  refutation  of  this  objection 
m  every  form  in  which  it  is  capable  of  being  put  with 
respect  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible.  Nothing  can, 
it  is  true,  be  more  entire  and  consistent  with  itself 
than  the  scheme  of  revelation  as  a  whole,  but  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  equally  certain  that  nothing  can  be 
more  seemingly  desultory,  can  bear  more  positive 
proofs  of  the  absence  of  any  thing  like  confederacy,  or 
be  less  set  off  by  elaborate  splendour  of  composition, 
than  the  greater  part  of  those  writings  through  the 
medium  of  which  that  revelation  is  conveyed.  One 
strong  internal  proof  of  the  real  inspiration  attributa- 
ble to  the  sacred  authors,  for  instance,  is  the  fact,  that 
many  of  them  are  not  only  known  to  have  been 
ignorant  men  in  general,  but  also  appear,  on  several 
occasions,  to  have  been  perfectly  unaware  of  the  value 
of  the  very  facts  which  they  were  communicating. 
With  reference  to  one  another,  so  far  from  appearing 
to  be  united  in  a  common  combination  to  deceive, 
they  often  seemingly,  though  perhaps  never  substan- 
tially, contradict  each  other's  statements,  in  minute 
particulars,  and  sometimes  even  in  momentous  points 
of  doctrine.  Not  only  do  they  not  appear  to  wish  to 
theorize,  but  it  may  even  be  doubted  how  far  many 
of  them,  at  the  moment  that  their  works  were  com- 
posed, possessed  any  definite  theory  beyond  that  of 
the  single  fact  of  the  promised  redemption  of  the 
Israeliiish  people.  In  order  to  understand  what 
Christianity,  in  all  its  parts,  reallv  is,  we  must  study 
not  one  Gospel  only,  nor  even  the  whole  four  Gos- 
pels, but  the  entire  book  of  the  New  Testament,  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  :  and  even  then  our  conclu- 
sions would  be  incomplete,  as  to  its  vast  importance 
and  the  elaborate  contrivance  of  Providence  for  its 


%\ 


242 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


243 


production,  unless  we  extend  our  researches  back- 
ward, from  the  last  book  of  the  Old  Testament  to  the 
very  first  pa^e  of  Genesis  itself.  And  yet  among  the 
great  multitude  of  writers  whose  respective  compo- 
sitions constitute  that  simple  and  consistent  work 
which  we  call  the  Bible,  only  two  individuals,  namely, 
Moses  and  Paul,  could  for  a  moment,  under  any 
circumstances,  be  suspected  of  a  tendency  or  disposi- 
lion  to  set  up  what  might  justly  be  denominated  a 
system.  But  Moses,  if  he  systematized  at  all,  must 
obviously  have  had  an  eye  to  the  permanence  of  his 
own  institutions,  and  have  striven  more  to  establish 
his  own  efficiency,  as  a  legislator,  than  to  act  in  the 
capacity  of  a  mere  forerunner  of  a  code  of  doctrines 
by  which  his  own  were  to  be  eventually  superseded  : 
—whilst,  again,  Paul,  however  disposed  he  may  have 
been  to  concentrate  the  facts  and  doctrines  con- 
nected with  Christ's  advent  into  one  consistent  series 
of  propositions,  at  all  events  came  after  those  facts 
upon  which  he  builds  his  conclusions  had  already 
taken  place,  and  after  the  greater  portion  of  those 
doctrines  had  been  promulged  and  commented  upon 

by  others. 

If,  then,  there  is,  as  there  assuredly  seems  to  be,  a 
traceable  consistency  in  Scripture,  which  marks  the 
at^ency  and  dictation  of  one  predominating  mind,  it 
certainly  is  not  to  the  ostensible  authors  of  its  seve- 
ral component  parts  that  such  consistency  can  be 
referred.  If  their  pens  were  so  guided  that  each  indi- 
vidual performed  exactly  his  own  necessary  share  in 
the  construction  of  the  work,  and  no  more,  and  if, 
without  natural  eloquence,  without  the  acquireoients 
of  literature,  and  without  any  of  the  known  qualifica- 
tions by  wiiich  sages  and  legislators  have  been  occa- 
sionally  enabled  to  impress  a  new  character  upon 
society,  these  men  have  operated  the  greatest  change 
in  human  manners  recorded  in  history,  we  must  surely 
look  elsewhere  than  to  themselves  for  the  gre^t 
moving  principle.  It  is  in  vain  for  us  to  examine  the 


Divine  Scriptures  with  the  fastidious  eye  of  critics, 
and  to  attempt  to  show  that  the  work  might  have 
been  better  and  more  systematically  done.  The  best 
answer  to  such  objections  is,  that  the  work  is  done: 
that  the  Bible  has  been  the  instrument,  which  has 
rendered  the  manners  of  modern  times,  not  excepting 
those  of  many  unbelievers  themselves,  more  humane, 
more  polished,  and  ten  thousand  times  more  pure, 
than  those  of  the  best  periods  of  antiquity  :  and  that 
if,  upon  reference  to  the  writings  which  have  wrought 
such  wonders,  we  seem  often  to  miss  that  elegance  of 
style  and  those  nice  accomplishments  which  mark 
the  highly-finished  productions  of  prqfessioniil  men 
of  letters,  it  is,  in  fact,  only  one  miracle  the  more, 
and  the  more  manifestly  ''  the  Lord's  doing." 

Those  persons  who  are  disposed  to  believe  that 
Providence  has,  from  first  to  last,  superintended 
the  developement  and  promulgation  of  Christianity, 
taking  care  that  the  most  important  of  all  communi- 
cations should  be  made  as  accessible  as  possible  to  the 
whole  human  race,  will  probably  be  disposed  to  con- 
sider the  singular  fact  that  the  whole  of  the  New 
Testament  has  descended  to  us  in  the  Greek  and  not 
in  the  Aramaic  language,  as  another  internal  proof 
of  the  Divine  benevolence  and  wisdom.  Certain  it 
is,  from  the  history  of  mankind  subsequent  to  the 
commencement  of  the  Christian  era,  that  no  other  lan- 
guage would  have  supplied  so  universally  convenient 
a  veTiicle  for  the  general  transmission  of  truth  as  the 
one  which,  for  many  centuries  since  the  coming  of 
Christ,  was  that  of  th^  predominant  power  of  Europe, 
and  which  is  at  this  moment,  as  it  is  likely  to  con- 
tinue to  be,  one  of  the  foremost  objects  of  the  study 
of  men  of  letters  throughout  the  civilized  world. 


2U 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  EEASON. 


245 


N 


.1 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


Conclusion. 


Returning,  then,  to  the   main   proposition  with 
which  we  set  out,  we  have  no  hesitation  in  asserting 
that,  setting  aside  all  gratuitous  theories  of  what  we 
might  conceive  the  system  of  the  universe  possibly 
to  have  been,  had  it  pleased  God  so  to  arrange  it, 
and  taking  the  actual  acknowledged  facts  of  human 
nature  as  the  foundation  of  the  argument,  there  is  an 
appositeness  and  relevancy  to  our  moral  wants  in  the 
scheme  of  revelation,  such  as  we  have  received  it, 
which  affords  a  strong,  we  might  surely   add,   an 
overpowering,  evidence  of  its  Divine  origin.  Were  it 
confessedly  the  suggestion  of  philosophical  ingenuity, 
it  would  probably  be  acknowledged  by  every  class  of 
men  to  be  by  many  degrees  the  most  plausible  con- 
jecture  in  the  records  of  literature ;  whilst,  as  a  matter 
of  practice,  it  is  undoubtedly  calculated  to  extirpate 
more  of  the  evil  propensities  of  the  heart,  and  to 
develope,   or,    to  speak   more  properly,   to  create  a 
greater  capability  of  virtue  than  all  the  united  ethical 
theories  which  human  ingenuity  has  produced.    The 
experiment  has  now  been  made  for  the  space  of  nearly 
eighteen  centuries,  and  it  may  confidently  be  asserted 
of  it,  that  where  fairly  tried,  it  has  invariably  suc- 
ceeded in  raising  the  standard  of  civilization,  and 
promoting  social  and  domestic  happiness.     It  is  no 
argument  against  it  to  allege,  as  the  infidels  are  in  the 
habit  of  doing,  the  miseries  produced  during  the  same 
period  of  time  by  the  malignant  passions  of  mankind 
under  the  assumed  sanction  of  its  name.     None  but 
those  who  are  already  predisposed  from  other  causes 
to  calumniate  revelation,  would  venture  to  attach  any 
weight  to  such  uncandid  allegations.     "  The  time 


Cometh  that  whosoever  killeth  you  will  think  that  he 
doeth  God  service,"  was  the  prophetic  remark  of  our 
Saviour  upon  the  abuses  which  he  foresaw  would  one 
day  be  perpetrated  under  the  pretext  of  religion ;  and 
certain  it  is,  that  human  cruelty  seldom  attains  to  so 
acrimonious  a  perfection  of  bitterness  as  when  con- 
centrated and  excited  by  the  demoniacal  spirit  of 
ignorant  fanaticism.  But  the  answer  here  is  a  short 
and  a  plain  one.  Neither  haired,  pride,  ambition, 
persecution,  nor  any  other  evil  and  carnal  passion, 
however  plausibly  disguised,  can  ever  be  otherwise 
than  directly  opposed  to  the  meek  and  unresisting 
principles  of  the  Gospel ;  and  precisely  in  the  same 
proportion  in  which  any  taint  of  such  propensities 
shall  have  at  any  time  been  found  to  have  influenced 
the  conduct  of  otherwise  sincere  Christians,  must  they 
be  considered  to  have  retrograded  from  their  faith. 
The  fact  is,  that  the  history  of  strongly  excited  human 
passion,  be  the  ostensible  exciting  motive  what  it  will, 
is  almost  invariably  the  history  of  human  crime. 
Never  is  the  understanding  less  fitted  to  judge  calmly 
and,  therefore,  soundly,— never  is  the  heart  less 
accessible  to  the  complacent  feeling  of  devotion  in  all 
its  overflowing  tenderness  of  universal  charity,  than 
when  religion  is  made  a  war  cry,  or  the  rallying 
signal  of  a  party.  In  order  to  know  the  immense 
degree  of  temporal  good  which  the  doctrines  of  the 
Gospel  have  wrought,  and  are  at  this  moment  work- 
ing in  society,  we  must  look,  then,  not  to  the  glare 
of  public  events,  where,  perhaps,  a  few  great  and 
triumphant  examples  of  unshaken  rectitude  of  prin- 
ciple afford  a  poor  consolation  to  the  spectator  for  the 
general  scene  of  wretchedness  and  wickedness  which 
he  is  compelled  to  witnesS;  but  to  the  noiseless 
retirement  of  domestic  life;  io  those  unobtrusive 
circles  in  which  the  Christian  virtues,  as  they  are 
expelled  one  by  one  from  the  arena  of  worldly  clam- 
our, take  their  final  refuge.  To  this  surest  and  most 
unfailing  test,  every  sincere  believer  will  confidently 

21* 


246 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


appeal  for  the  evidences  of  the  soundness  of  those 
principles  which  he  acknowledges,  against  the  taunts 
of  the  unbeliever.  He  will  point  to  the  abode  of 
those  whom  the  world  deems  unfortunate,  but  who 
are  inwardly  conscious  of  possessing  a  treasure  which 
they  would  not  exchange  for  all  the  external  pros- 
perity of  those  who  despise  them  ;  to  the  bedchamber 
of  the  invalid,  who  cheerfully  recognises  the  hand  of 
a  father  and  benefactor  in  the  stroke  which  chastises 
him;  to  traits  of  feminine  and  almost  infantine  hero- 
ism, in  comparison  of  which  the  legends  of  Pagan 
antiquity  fade  away  into  nothing;  and,  as  a  case  not 
less  in  point,  to  the  jaded  feelings  of  the  worn  out 
votary  of  wealth  or  ambition,  who  has  at  length 
begun  to  perceive  the  vanity  of  all  human  pursuits, 
excepting  that  of  the  one  thing,  which  in  the  sunny 
season  of  life  he  had  contemptuously  overlooked. 
The  healing  operation  of  the  Gospel  principles  upon 
all  the  weaknesses  and  infirmities  and  irritations  to 
which  our  nature  is  subject,  cannot^  we  repeat,  be  the 
result  of  mere  accident.  There  must  be  something  in 
them  of  Divine  contrivance,  some  relevancy,  how- 
ever inexplicable,  to  the  constitution  of  our  hearts  and 
understanding.  Falsehood  and  imposture  are  in  their 
very  nature  so  repugnant  to  the  general  well-bein^ 
of  mankind,  and  to  our  necessary  apprehensions  of 
the  Divine  attributes,  that  to  suppose  them  capable 
of  producing  all  the  effects  of  the  holiest  truths,  not 
only  in  this  or  that  instance,  but  in  every  department 
and  under  every  possible  modification  of  society, 
would  be  the  greatest  of  absurdities.  If  it  is  alleged, 
in  reply  to  this  observation,  that  Christianity  is  only 
so  far  beneficial  in  its  effects  upon  the  human  heart, 
inasmuch  as  it  comprehends  all  the  principles  of^ 
natural  religion,  to  the  excellence  and  Divine  origin 
of  which  the  sceptic  professes  to  assent  equally  with 
ourselves,  our  answer  is,  that  we  deny  that  mere 
natural  religion  can  produce  the  result  now  described. 
We  do  not  pretend  nor  wish  to  undervalue  the  prin- 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


247 


k  ' 


ciples  of  sound  theism  so  far  as  they  will  go.     They 
constitute,  we  admit,  integral  portions  of  the  truth, 
but  still,  we  assert,  that  they  are  not  the  whole  truth ; 
and  we  would  add,  also,  that  the  points  in  which 
they  are  defective  are  those  very  points  in  which  the 
weakness  of  human  nature  most  earnestly  requires 
their  help.     In  every  thing  that  has  reference  to  the 
position  of  man  with  respect  to  his  Creator,  to  the 
peculiar  diflSculties  connected  with  the   undoubted 
phenomena  of  the  Divine   government,   and  every 
most  earnest  wish  and  want  of  the  human  heart,  we 
must  have   recourse   solely  and  exclusively  to  the 
peculiar  doctrines  of  Christianity.  The  moral  anoma- 
lies which,  in  the  midst  of  an  astonishingly  beautiful 
material  creation,  we  cannot  but  observe  around  us, 
suggest  the  antagonist  propositions  against  which  the 
Gospel  revelations  are  placed  in  direct  counteraction. 
In  admitting,  then,  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  the 
former,  it  would  seem  impossible,  if  we  would  vindi- 
cate to  our  reasons  the  ways  of  Providence,  to  deny 
the  reality  of  the  latter.     Why,  then,  has  this  splen- 
did doctrine  been  received  with  so  much  haughty 
superciliousness,  not  to  say  with  so  much  virulence 
of  hostility,  as  we  know  that  it  has  been  received,  by 
men  of  high  acquirements  in  literature,  and  even 
sometimes  of  correct  moral   habits?     The  Gospel 
itself  will  supply  the  answer,  "  that  its  kingdom  is 
not  of  this  world ;"  that  it  is  not  a  mere  ingenious 
theory,  in  discussing  which  philosophical  minds  may- 
exercise  their  acuteness,  but  that  it  is  a  practical, 
and  often  a  painful,  course  of  moral  discipline,  entail- 
ing  upon   its  professors  no   slight   degree   of  self- 
restraint,  and  the  abjuration  of  no  small  proportion 
of  the  more  immediate  attractions  of  this  life.     Nor 
is  this  all.     Calculated,  as  it  leally  is,  to  meet  and 
satisfy  our  most  urgent  moral  wan^s,  still  the  truth 
of  this  fact  is  far,  very  far,  from  being  prominently 
evident  to  all  classes  ot  persons.  The  patient  requires 
to  be  satisfied  of  the  existence  of  the  malady  before 


248 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON, 


249 


he  calls  in  the  aid  of  the  physician.  But  such  are  the 
distractions  of  society,  and  so  numerous  the  occupa- 
tions which  divert  us  from  the  habit  of  deep  spiritual 
reflection,  that  the  interior  of  their  own  breasts 
remains  to  the  last  an  unexplored  region  to  the  greater 
portion  of  mankind.  Let  them,  indeed,  take  the 
trouble  of  tracing  consequence  after  consequence  as 
they  arise  in  necessary  succession,  from  the  acknow- 
ledged principles  of  universal  morals,  and  we  have 
no  doubt  that  the  uniform  result  to  most  minds  would 
be,  a  disposition  to  hail  the  communications  of  reve- 
lation as  bearing  the  decisive  stamp  of  authenticity. 
But  this  is  a  trouble  which  few  individuals  imagine 
that  they  have  leisure,  and  still  fewer  find  that  they 
have  the  disposition,  to  undertake.  To  such  men, 
accordingly,  Christianity  comes  as  medicine  tendered 
to  the  sound,  or  the  solution  of  an  enigma  to  those 
who  are  not  conscious  of  the  difficulty.  Its  first 
impression,  therefore,  upon  them  is,  that  of  its  being 
something  superfluous,  which  they  may  well  afford 
to  do  without,  and  which,  therefore,  would  argue  a 
meddlesome  pertinacity  in  those  who  would  anxiously 
direct  their  attention  to  it. 

The  long  continued  operation  of  miracles,  also, 
of  which  the  Bible  requires  our  belief,  and  the  tran- 
scendental mysteries  which  it  inculcates  as  matters 
of  faith,  though  involving  no  real  improbability,  if 
rightly  considered,  must  be  confessed  to  be  well  cal- 
culated to  startle  most  persons,  who  come  for  the 
first  time  to  the  consideration  of  its  evidences.  In 
order  fully  to  appreciate  the  physical  difficulty  which 
even  the  most  intelligent  and  well  regulated  minds 
must  have  felt,  to  conquer  their  prepossession  against 
revelation,  occasioned  by  the  detail  of  preternatural 
occurrences  which  it  records,  it  will  be  proper,  before 
we  conclude,  to  revert  once  more  to  the  notice  of  one 
of  those  instinctive  operations  of  our  minds,  with 
respect  to  the  existence  of  which,  as  we  have  before 
observed,   all  metaphysicians  appear  to  be  agreed. 


The  operation  alluded  to  has  been  already  stated  to 
be  that  by  which,  prior  to,  and  independently  of,  all 
systematic  reasoning,  we   derive  our  belief  in  the 
permanency  and  inviolability  of  the  ordinary  laws 
of  nature  from  the  simple  fact  of  our  own  past  per- 
sonal experience.     It  has  been  often  and  often  re- 
peated by  those  persons  who  have  most  studied  the 
phenomena  of  the  human  mind,  that  in  consequence 
of  our  inability  to  trace  any  connexion  between  cause 
and  effect,  we  can  have  no  possible  ground  for  anti- 
cipating  the  recurrence   of  any,  the   most  natural 
incident,  beyond  that  of  our  recollection  of  the  uni- 
formity of  its  past  occurrence  under  analogous  cir- 
cumstances. Such  are  the  strange  processes  by  which 
we  reason,  that  this  axiom,  which  in  fact  supplies  the 
strongest  theoretical  argument  in  favour  of  what  we 
should  deem  miracles,  (inasmuch  as  it  would  show 
that,  for  any  thing  we  know  to  the  contrary,  any 
result  whatever  may  be  the  result  of  any  antecedent 
operation,)  still  affords,  practically,  the  tiiost  power- 
ful though  not  the  most  sound,  presumption  against 
them.     "  Such  and  such  things  happen  in  a  certain 
order;  therefore  they  will  always  so  happen."     This 
is,  perhaps,  the  first  general  maxim  at  which  the 
human  mind,  in  the  commencement  of  life,  arrives. 
No  doubt  Providence  has  wisely  contrived,  not  only 
that  every  man,  but  probably,   that  every  animal 
endued  with  consciousness,  in  order  that  it  may  be 
enabled  to  procure  its  own  subsistence,  should  have 
a  necessary  and  instinctive  impression,  that  certain 
effects  will  invariably  result  from   certain  causes. 
But  it  is  obvious  that  this  conclusion  is  the  result 
of  no   legitimate  process  of  ratiocination.     "It  is 
impossible,"  says  Hume,  "  that  this  inference  of  the 
(brute)  animal  can  be  founded  on  any  process  of 
argument  or  reasoning,  by  which  he  concludes,  that 
like  events  must  follow  like  objects,  and  that  the 
course  of  nature  will  always  be  regular  in  its  opera- 
tions.    For  if  there  be,  in  reality,  any  arguments  of 


I 


f 


250 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


this  nature,  they  surely  lie  too  abstruse  for  the  obser- 
vation  of  such   imperfect   understandings;  since  it 
mav  well  employ  the  utmost  care  and  attention  of  a 
phiJosophic   genius   to  discover  and  observe  them 
Animals,  therefore,  are  not  guided  in  these  inferences 
by  reasoning;  neither  are  children:  neither  are  the 
generality  of  mankind,  in  their  ordinary  actions  and 
cone  us^ions :  neither  are  philosophers  themselves,  who 
m  all  the  active  parts  of  life,  are,  in  the  main,  the 
same  with  the  vulgar,  and  are  governed  by  the  same 
maxims.     Nature   must  have  provided  some  other 
principle,  of  more  ready  and  more  general  use  and 
application ;  nor  can  an  operation  of  such  immense 
consequence  m  life  as  that  of  inferring  effects  from 
causes  be  trusted  to  the  uncertain  process  of  reason- 
ing  and  argumentation.     Were  this  doubtful  with 
regard  to  men,  it  seems  to  admit  of  no  question  with 
regard   to  the   brute   creation ;  and   the  conclusion 
being  once  firmly  established  in  the  one,  we  have  a 
strong  presumption,  from   all  the  rules  of  analo^rv 
that  It  ought  to  be  universally  admitted  without  any 
exception   or  reserve.     It  is   custom   alone   which 
engages  animals,  from  every  object  that  strikes  their 
senses,  to  infer  its  usual  attendant,  and  carries  their 
imagination,  from  the  appearance  of  the  one,  to  con- 
ceive the  other  in  that  particular  manner  which  we 
denominate  belief.     No   other  explanation   can   be 
given  ol  this  operation,  in  all  the  higher  as  well  as 
Jower  classes  of  sensitive  beings  which  fall  under 
our  notice  and  observation."*     Without  this  power- 
lul  association  here  stated,  it  would  undoubtedly  be 
impossible  for  us  not  only  to  provide   for  comina 
occurrences,  but  even  duly  to  avail  ourselves  of  the 
present  blessings  which  the  bounty  of  the  Creator  has 
spread  before  us.  The  sceptical  philosopher,  however 
trom  waose  writings  the  above  extract  is  made  has 
attached  so  much  importance  to  this  fact,  that  upon 

•  Hume's  Essay  on  the  Reason  of  Animals. 


WITH   HUMAN  REASON. 


251 


it,  that  is  to  say,  upon  our  presumed  incapability  of 
believing  any  tning  which  is  contrary  to  our  uniform 
past  experience,  he  has  built  his  celebrated  dictum, 
that  "  no  testimony  whatever  is  sufficient  to  establish 
a  miracle."  It  is,  to  be  sure,  somewhat  inconsistent, 
in  a  statement  thus  undoubtedly  promulgated,  that 
this  bold  proposition  should  be  admitted  by  its  pro- 
pounder  to  be  founded,  as  is  above  seen,  upon  no 
necessary,  nor  even  probable,  inference  of  the  reason; 
but  to  be  a  mere  consequence  of  the  arbitrary  con- 
struction of  the  mind ;  and  that  he  should  allow, 
almost  in  the  same  breath,  that  no,  however  porten- 
tous deviation  from  the  general  order  of  events,  in- 
dependently of  that  instinctive  association,  ought, 
properly,  to  excite  in  us  any  surprise  whatever. 
"The  bread,"  says  he,  "  which  I  formerly  ate,  nour- 
ished me ;  that  is,  a  body  of  such  sensible  qualities 
was,  at  that  time,  endued  with  such  secret  powers. 
But  does  it  follow  that  other  bread  must  also  nourish 
me  at  another  time,  and  that  like  sensible  qualities 
must  always  be  attended  with  the  like  secret  powers? 
The  consequence  seems  nowise  necessary  ^"^  What  is 
this  admission,  then,  but  that  there  is  nothing  in 
what  we  should  grant  to  be  a  real  miracle,  that  is  to 
say,  a  decided  deviation  from  seemingly  established 
cause  and  effect,  which,  in  strict  reason,  ought  to  sur- 
prise us?  But  such  contradictions  are,  perhaps,  to 
be  expected  the  moment  that  we  launch  into  the 
region  of  metaphysical  abstractions.  In  a  certain 
sense,  however,  the  sincerest  Christian  believer  will 
readily  grant  the  greater  part,  though,  assuredly,  he 
will  not  assent  to  the  entire  Avhole,  of  the  foregoing 
assertions.  He  will  cheerfully  acknowledge,  with 
Hume,  that  knowing  really  nothing  of  the  necessary 
connexion  of  causation,  we  have  no  reason,  theoret- 
ically, for  supposing  any  miracle  whatever  (using 
that  word  in  its  commonly  received  acceptation)  to 

•  Hurae'ff  Sceptical  Doubta. 


/ 


252 


COWSISTEI^CY   OF  REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


253 


be  really  impossible :  but  he  will  also  allow,  because 
it  is  what  every  reasonable  person  must  feel,  that  the 
natural,  and  almosN  necessary  presumption  of  our 
minds  is,  that  the  order  of  nature,  such  as  we  know 
it  from  experience  to  be,  is,  as  a  general  rule,  fixed 
and  permanent.  It  is  obvious,  however,  and  should 
never  be  forgotten,  that,  whilst  the  former  of  these 
propositions  is  a  direct  inference  from  the  principles 
of  sound  and  laborious  reasoning,  the  latter  is  an 
inert  and  involuntary  animal  impression  only.  We 
believe  in  it,  because  we  find  ourselves,  from  the 
constitution  of  our  nature,  impelled  to  do  so;  but  we 
can  assign  no  other  reason  for  it  than  that  Ood,  for 
wise,  practical,  but  secondary  purposes,  has  so  dis- 
posed us.  The  fact  is,  that  the  moment  that  we 
examine  this  last  axiom,  the  more  we  find  our- 
selves obliged  to  question  its  philosophical  accuracy. 
Nothing,  assuredly,  can  be  more  experimentally  cer- 
tain, than  that  the  phenomena  of  nature  have  not 
always  been  what  they  are  this  moment.  And 
yet  we  can  no  more  conceive  the  fact  of  a  creation 
of  the  universe,  or  that  of  the  first  production  of  any 
single  plant  or  animal,  than  we  can  any  of  the  most 
astounding  miracles  of  Scripture.  Such  occurrences 
are  certainly  equally  opposed,  with  those  last  mention- 
ed, to  our  daily  and  uniform  experience,  and  therefore, 
according  to  Hume's  argument,  ought  to  be  equally 
revolting  to  the  understanding.  But  with  regard  to 
those  former  facts,  they  are  as  certain  and  demon- 
strable as  any  the  best  attested  occurrences  of  our 
own  times.  That  such  things  have  been,  is  no  longer 
a  doubt  with  the  most  hardened  and  pertinacious 
sceptic.  But  if  so,  there  is  assuredly  no  reason  why 
we  should  stop  at  this  point,  and,  naving  admitted 
the  uncertainty  of  the  test  of  mere  experience  thus 
far,  should  deny  that  the  same  argument  may  be 
legitimately  extended  much  further. 

Though,  however,  such  an  inference  would  seem 
to  be  nothing  more  than  what  is  strictly  reasonable. 


1 

(i 


^ 


i 


fitill,  we  repeat,  the  blind  and  instinctive  impression 
of  the  human  mind  is  on  the  other  side.     All  persons 
whatever  in  their  ordinary,  and  the  greater  proportion 
of  mankind  in  their  permanent,  habits,  are  startled 
and  offended  by  any  assertion  of  the  reality  of  what, 
in  common  language,  and  under  common  circum- 
stances,  would    be   deemed   impossibilities.       The 
ignorant  no  less  than  the  learned  can  say  what  is 
accordant  with,  or  contrary  to,  their  personal  experi- 
ence,  and  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  mankind, 
whether  ignorant  or  learned,  will  reason  no  further. 
It  requires,  in  fact,  no  small  degree  of  the  power  of 
philosophical  abstraction,  to  perceive  that  many  things 
which  by  the  vulgar  are  considered  as  impossibilities, 
are  not  only  possible  but  necessary  inferences  from 
undoubted  premises.     Until,  however,  this  truth  be 
made   not   only  demonstrable,   but  familiar   to  the 
mind,  a  prejudice  against  the  wonders  related   in 
Scripture  must  ever,  to  a  certain  degree,  exist  in  the 
breasts  of  even  the  devout  and  well-disposed,  whilst 
the  same  facts  will  be  exultingly  selected  from  the 
general  context  of  revelation,  by  the  thoughtless  and 
profane,  as  triumphant  proofs  of  the  credulity  of  the 
single-minded,  and  the  utter  incredibility  of  the  whole 
theory  of  our  faith.      But  the  influential  causes,  to 
which  we  must  attribute  the  widely  extending  indif- 
ference amongst  worldly  men  with  respect  to  evan- 
gelical truth,  do  not  terminate  here.      Christianity, 
we  should  recollect,  in  addition  to  its  being  exposed 
in  limine  to  the  strong  involuntary  objection  above 
alluded  to,  finds  also  a  still  more  formidable,  because 
a  far  less  innocent,  predisposition  of  the  human  mind 
arrayed  against  it,  from  the  many  sacrifices  of  pre- 
sumed personal   convenience   it  requires,   and   the 
diflftcult  course  of  spiritual  discipline  which  it  would 
enforce.     Here,  again,  every  metaphysician  will  tell 
us,  that,  independently  of  the  moral  disqualification 
which  licentious  habits  create  for  the  perception  of 
the  intrinsic  beauty  of  true  holiness,  another  objec- 

22 


254 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


tion  to  its  reception  occurs,  founded  like  the  fornieT 
rather  upon  the  mechanism  and  original  constitution 
of  our  minds,  than  upon  real  exercise  of  the  reason- 
ing powers.      The  first  and  instinctive  impulse  of 
every  person,  not  with  respect  to  religious  questions 
only,  but  in  all  the  common  transactions  of  life,  is  to 
believe  rather  what  he  wishes  to  be  true,  than  what 
actually  is   so.     This  impression,  an  unreasonable 
and  a  mischievous  one  no  doubt,  suggests  itself  un- 
called for,  and,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  influences 
the  choice  and  moulds  the  opinions  of  the  average 
members  of  society ;  whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
strength  of  mind,  which,  setting  passion  and  prejudice 
apart,  withholds  its  judgment  till  it  has  found  sub- 
stantial reasons  on  which  to  found  an  inference,  is 
attained  with  difficulty,  and  consequently  falls  to  the 
lot  of  comparatively  few.     Tn  no  case,  hovverer,  per- 
haps, does  the  above-mentioned  unreasoning  preju- 
dice operate  more  widely  than  in  that  of  the  forma- 
tion of  our  religious  opinions.     A  business-like,  cal- 
culating,  and    money-making    community,   do   not 
readily  turn  aside  from  their  favourite  course  in  pur- 
suit of  inquiries  of  this  nature,  where  no  immediate 
worldly  advantage  is  at  hand  to  reward  their  labour. 
So  long,  accordingly,  as  they  can  keep  the  momen- 
tous questions  of  revelation  at  a  distance,  and  by  so 
doing  can  contrive  to  know  no  more  of  it  than  that  it 
requires  their  belief  in  prodigies  perfectly  unlike  to 
any  thing  which  has  ever  occurred  within  their  own 
knowledge,  whilst  they  feel  also  that  its  entire  adop- 
tion would  stand  in  the  way  of  that  self-indulgence 
to  which  the  corrupt  human  heart  is   so  naturally 
prone,  religious  belief  in  the  full,  strict,  evangelical 
sense  of  the  term,  must  to  them  be  really  impossible. 
Public  decorum,  and  an  idea  that  a  professed  defer- 
ence to  the  established  worship  of  the  country  is 
required  of  them  as  citizens,  may  procure  their  external 
assent  to  its  forms  ;  and  so  long  as  that  natural  sense 
of  the  rules  of  morality,  which  the  Christian  revela- 


i 


I 
I 


/ 


♦ 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


255 


tion  has  so  much  heightened  and  improved,  even  in 
the  case  of  those  who  deny  its  evidences,  continues 
to  supply  a  general  standard  for  their  conduct,  they 
may  pass  through  life  perhaps  not  only  plausibly,  but 
really  usefully,  as  members  of  the  social  community. 
Examples,  however,  such  as  these  can  never  be  quoted 
as  a  realization  of  the  blessed  effects  which  Chris- 
tianity was  intended  to  produce  among  the  human 
race. 

We  should  form  a  very  inadequate  notion  of  the 
value  of  the  Gospel,  were  we  to  suppose  that  it  had 
completed  its  work  when  it  had  smoothed  the  rough 
exterior  of  public  manners,  and,  having  inculcated  a 
certain  series  of  moral  maxims  much  too  refined  and 
unearthly  for  the  mere  worldly  mind  to  adopt,  as  a 
rule  of  practice,  or  even  to  appreciate,  that  it  has 
left  human  nature  as  cold  and  as  incapable  of  holy 
aspirations  as  it  found  it.  That  stupendous  dispen- 
sation is  assuredly,  if  true,  far,  very  far,  too  elaborate 
an  arrangement  of  Providence  to  rest  contented  with 
this  humble  result.  It  is  either  something  vastly 
superior  to  every  possible  worldly  object,  or  it  is 
nothing.  No  reasonable  Christian,  any  more  than  any 
other  reasonable  person,  believes  gratuitously,  unne- 
cessarily, and  from  a  natural  predisposition,  in  mira- 
cles. He  knows,  he  sees  as  clearly  as  Hume  or  any 
other  sceptic,  that  God  never  disturbs  the  established 
order  of  his  own  works,  but  for  some  truly  extraor- 
dinary and  paramount  object.  If,  then,  notwithstand- 
ing this  original  bias  to  the  contrary,  the  overpower-t 
ing  force  of  external  and  internal  evidence  obliges 
him  to  admit  that  such  preternatural  interpositions 
have  really  taken  place  ;  and  if  he  finds  that  the 
choice  between  assent  and  uni^elief  is  after  all  a  choice 
of  difliculties,  and  yet  that  upon  due  and  cautious 
examination  he  cannot  but  admit  that  the  affirmative 
side  of  the  question  is,  beyond  comparison,  the  most 
probable,  still  the  very  feeling  of  amazement  with 
which  he  concludes  his  inquiry  leaves  him  under  an 


256 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


257 


awe-struck  impression  of  the  infinite  importance  of 
the  mysterious  truths  thus  forced  upon  his  conviction. 

What,  then,  is  the  reasonahle,  the  only  conclusion, 
to  which  he  can  arrive  ?  That  he  cannot,  consistently 
with  any  rule  of  sound  argument,  any  more  than 
conformably  with  what  he  conceives  to  be  the  un- 
equivocal language  of  revelation,  make  common  cause 
with  the  Unitarian,  the  Socinian,  or  the  Arian.  He 
feels  that  he  has  no  alternative  but  that  of  receiving 
Scripture  as  a  whole,  or  of  rejecting  it  as  a  whole. 
He  sees  no  diminution  of  the  difficulty,  if,  discarding 
as  human  superadditions  the  larger  portion  of  the 
recorded  miracles  of  Holy  Writ,  he  is  compelled  by 
the  cogency  of  proof  to  retain  any.  Granting  the 
reality  of  one,  whether  that  one  be  the  miracle  of 
inspiration,  the  miracle  of  prophecy,  or  the  miracle  of 
the  transmutation  of  natural  objects,  he  knows  that 
he  has  conceded  the  great  question  at  issue,  and  that 
henceforward  there  remains  no  other  point  at  which 
he  can  reasonably  stop  in  the  course  of  his  admis- 
sions, than  the  full  boundary  line  of  Scripture  itself. 

But  if  he  receive  the  whole  of  what  we  are  taught 
to  acknowledge  as  God's  word,  it  will,  then,  assuredly 
be  to  him  as  the  most  stupendous  and  most  excellent 
of  God's  gifts.  It  will  strictly  be  his  "Emmanuel, 
God  with  us."  It  will  identify  him  in  interests  and 
in  feeling  with  every  thing,  however  noble  and  tran- 
scendental, which  his  imagination  can  conceive,  or  to 
which  his  most  rapturous  wishes  can  aspire.  It  will 
open  all  heaven  before  him,  because  he  will  know 
that  the  price  of  heaven  has  already  been  paid  on  his 
account ;  and  it  will  scale  and  purge  his  eyesight 
with  regard  to  every  thing  connected  with  the  earth. 
It  will  inculcate  no  fanaticism,  no  ascetic  mortifi- 
cations, no  contemptuous  disregard  or  hard-hearted 
suppression  of  the  charities  of  social  and  domestic 
life ;  for  such  are  the  false  deductions  of  a  morose 
human  philosophy,  following  up  its  own  harsh  and 
narrow  principles  under  the  influence  of  superstitious 


f 


terror  and  unenlightened  reason.  But  he  will,  not- 
withstanding, learn  to  see  every  thing  in  its  proper 
proportions,  and  in  its  true  colours.  He  will  think 
less  of  this  world,  only  because  he  will  think  of  hea- 
ven the  more ;  but  his  dealings  with  mankind  will 
be  in  all  fervour  of  affection,  and  cheerfulness,  and 
guileless  simplicity  of  heart.  He  will  love  man, 
because  the  principle  of  his  religion  is  love,  and 
because  he  knows  that  for  the  sake  of  man  his  gra- 
cious Redeemer  quitted  heaven  and  became  a  so- 
journer and  an  outcast  upon  earth ;  and  he  will  love 
God  with  an  intensity  of  which  every  other  modifica- 
tion of  religious  belief  is  incapable,  because  no  other 
religion  teaches  that  our  Creator  has  done  for  us 
what  the  Gospel  assures  us  that  he  has  done.  Need 
we,  then,  ask  the  superfluous  question  whether  Chris- 
tianity, thus  considered  and  thus  adopted,  will  make 
him  wiser  and  better?  and  if  such  be  the  certain 
result  of  its  adoption,  need  we  again  ask  whether 
that  system  of  belief  is  really  from  God  ?  "  By  their 
fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  is  the  infallible  criterion 
to  which  every  Christian  believer  will  confidently 
appeal  in  vindication  of  the  hope  which  is  in  him  : 
being  fully  assured  that  those  tenets  must  be  founded 
upon  an  immoveable  basis  of  truth,  the  necessary 
consequence  of  which  is  to  afford  the  best,  or  rather 
the  only,  explanation  of  the  mysteries  of  God's  Provi- 
dence, and,  whilst  it  kills  in  their  first  growth  every 
germia^ting  principle  of  vice,  to  develope  a  capability 
of  spiritual  holiness  in  man,  of  the  possibility  of 
which  mere  human  reason  could  not  have  afforded 
us  the  slightest  conception. 


f 


In  the  preceding  dissertation  an  attempt  has  been 
made  to  give  a  summary  sketch  of  the  entire  system 
of  revelation,  by  tracing  the  converging  tendency  of 
its  various  integral  parts  from  first  to  last,  as  they 

22* 


253 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


259 


tinite  to  form  one  consistent  design,  and  terminate  in 
the  establishment  of  a  few  most  momentous  proposi- 
tions. The  execution  of  the  design  has,  from  the 
extensive  nature  of  the  subject,  been  necessarily 
general  and  superficial :  still,  however,  the  mode  of 
treating  it  here  pursued  will  not,  it  is  trusted,  be 
without  its  use  to  many  persons  (whether  coming 
under  the  denomination  of  believers  or  sceptics) 
whose  attention  may  not  have  been  accustomed  to 
consider  the  uniformity  of  plan  which  appears  to 
pervade  the  whole  of  God's  dealings  with  mankind, 
should  they,  and  more  especially  should  the  latter, 
be  disposed  to  afford  to  it  a  small  portion  of  their 
consideration.  To  readers  of  the  former  description 
it  cannot,  to  say  the  least,  be  otherwise  than  bene- 
ficial, to  acquire  the  habit  of  taking  larger  and  more 
comprehensive  views  than  they  have  yet  done  of  the 
subject  matter  of  their  belief,  and  of  thus  confirming 
their  previous  impression  of  the  truth  of  the  various 
component  doctrines  of  their  religion,  by  observing 
how  impossible  it  is  to  rest  any  of  them  singly  and 
severally  from  its  general  contexture  without  the 
dislocation  of  the  whole,  and  in  fact  without  over- 
turning the  very  fundamental  principles  of  natural 
theology  itself.  In  this  respect  the  design  of  the 
comprehensive  survey  of  the  theory  of  Christianity 
here  attempted  will  bear  some  resemblance  to  that  of 
the  blank  outline  maps  which  we  place  in  the  hands 
of  young  students  in  geography,  by  the  aid  of  which 
the  grouping  and  relative  connexion  of  the  several 
districts  are  rendered  more  easy  of  apprehension, 
than  would  be  the  case  were  they  to  commence  by 
entangling  themselves  in  minute  questions  of  detail. 
In  theology  more  especially,  and  more  markedly  than 
in  other  pursuits,  an  acquaintance  with  the  actual 
location  of  a  principle  in  the  system  of  which  it 
forms  a  part,  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  purpose 
of  its  proper  elucidation.  A  difficulty  which  would 
be  insuperable  when  considered  as  a  detached  propo- 


sition, often  assumes  the  character  of  an  obvious  and 
necessary  inference,  when  viewed  in  its  proper  posi- 
tion as  a  member  of  a  connected  series  of  correlative 
axioms. 

With  the  sceptic,  again,  the  appeal  here  made  to 
principles  recognised  by  himself,  and  to  the  test  of 
uniform  experience,  may,  it  is  hoped,  operate  as  an 
inducement  to  commence  a  further  and  more  elaborate 
examination,  in  all  its  minuter  details,  of  the  great 
question  at  issue,  upon  which  he  is  imperatively 
urged  by  every  principle  of  duty,  interest,  and  sober 
reason,  to  return  an  impartial  verdict.  It  is  an  ob- 
vious truth,  that  with  the  active  business-like  man 
of  the  world,  the  dogmatical  inculcation  of  insulated 
doctrines  of  religion,  however  vital  in  themselves,  and 
however  really  substantiated  by  strong  external  evi- 
dence, rarely  succeeds.  To  minds  thus  preoccupied 
by  the  speculations  of  the  passing  hour,  the  mysteri- 
ous dicta  of  our  faith  necessarily  announce  them- 
selves with  an  air  of  paradox,  when  presented  one 
by  one,  without  reference  to  the  other  truths  which 
ought  to  precede  or  accompany  them.  Abstract  and 
impalpable  doctrines  are  never  accepted  by  us  will- 
ingly, nor  considered  impartially,  where  no  previous 
moral  habits  predispose  us  for  their  reception,  and 
no  strongly  marked  semblance  of  probability  gives 
them  an  urgent  claim  upon  our  atten*ion.  Of  all 
subjects  of  intellectual  research,  accordingly,  that  of 
theology,  if  we  would  ground  our  faith  upon  immove- 
able principles,  requires  the  widest  process  of  in'luc- 
tion  and  the  most  thorough  investigation  of  the  indu- 
bitable principles  of  our  own  nature,  and  of  the 
general  laws  of  God's  moral  government.  Partial, 
desultory,  and  confined  views,  whilst  they  present  an 
almost  insurmountable  stumbling-block  in  the  path 
of  the  sceptic,  afford  also  an  unsafe  resting-place  for 
the  faith  of  even  the  best  disposed  Christian  believer. 
It  is  only  after  a  long  and  continuous  effort  of  the 
understanding  that  the  mist  which  envelopes  these 


1 


360 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


WITH   HUMAN   REASON. 


261 


transcendental  questions  gradually  disperses,  and  we 
begin  to  perceive  clearly,  how,  by  the  intimate  inter- 
lacement of  doctrine  with  doctrine,  the  great  truths 
of  revelation  mutually  aid  and  support  one  another. 
When  the  mind,  by  habitual  contemplation,  has 
become  thoroughly  familiarized  with  the  wonders  of 
the  spiritual  world,  then,  and  not  till  then,  the  neces- 
sity not  only  of  believing  something,  but  of  believing 
what,  if  broadly  stated  to  the  indolent  and  indifferent^ 
will  appear  to  be  a  degree  of  gratuitous  credulity, 
forces  itself  irresistibly  on  the  conviction. 

It  is  on  this  account  that  the  singular  intellectual 
character  of  the  age  in  which  we  live  must  tend  to 
fill  every  well-wisher  to  the  cause  of  religion  and  to 
mankind  with  feelings  of  anxiety,  if  not  of  alarm. 
This  observation  is  not  made  from  any  disposition  to 
augur   altogether   unfavourably  of  those  habits  of 
mental  enterprise  which  mark  the  present  day.  Con- 
vinced, as  we  are,  that  the  rapid  movement  which  is 
now  taking  place  in  the  course  of  events  is  part  of 
that  progressive  system  which  the  wisdom  of  Pro- 
vidence has  destined  to  lead  to  the  ultimate  benefit 
of  his  creatures,  we  cannot  doubt  but   that    there 
exists,  somewhere  or  other,  in  the  busy  scene  around 
us,  a  sanative  principle,  which  will  deaden  the  energy 
of  much  of  that  moral  poison  which  at  present  seerns 
so  copiously  to  infect  the  stream  of  science.   It  is  the 
almost  exclusively  earthly  tendency  of  the  intellec- 
tual pursuits  of  the  existing  generation,  and  not  the 
pursuits  themselves,  which  we  fear  and  deprecate. 
The  evils  resulting  from  the  abuse  of  knowledge  are 
not,  indeed,  peculiar  to  our  own  age.    So  long  as  the 
heart  of  man  continues  to  be  what  it  is,  intelligence, 
like  every  other  powder,  will  as  often  be  converted 
into  a  principle  of  mischief  as  of  benefit.     Be  the 
favourite  science  of  the  moment  what  it  may,  it  will, 
according  to  the  opposite  views  of  individuals,  afford 
implements  for  the  attack,  no  less  than  arguments 
fbr  the  defence,  of  religion.    A  century  ago,  when 


the  comparative  stagnation  of  the  public  mind,  by 
the  greater  degree  of  leisure  which  accompanied  it, 
impr'essed  upon  out  literature  a  more  abstracted  and 
visionary  character  than  that  which  attaches  to  the 
more  practical  studies  of  our  present  men  of  letters, 
metaphysical  studies,  the  legitimate  pursuit  of  which 
may  be  numbered  among  the  most  effective  auxilia- 
ries of  sound  theology,  supplied,  as  is  well  known, 
some  of  the  most  powerful  aids  to  the  genius  of  infi- 
delity. A  science  which,  as  if  by  the  touch  of  a 
magician,  could  make  the  whole  material  universe, 
as  it  were,  disappear  from  our  view,  leaving  to  us 
nothing  but  thin  and  impalpable  abstractions  in  its 
place,  and  which  by  attempting  to  explain  the  origin 
and  growth  of  our  ideas,  and  even  the  nature  and 
constitution  of  the  human  soul,  could  contrive  to 
render  the  fundamental  axioms  of  Theism  and  mo- 
rality equivocal  in  the  conceptions  of  the  half-inform- 
ed, was  naturally  laid  hold  of  with  eagerness,  as  an 
excuse  for  their  unbelief,  by  those  persons  whose 
unaspiring  object  it  was  to  confine  the  whole  scope 
and  energy  of  our  spiritual  faculties  within  the  nar- 
row boundaries  of  this  world's  business.  The  delu- 
sion was  strong  whilst  it  lasted,  but,  like  all  other 
systems  of  unsubstantial  philosophy,  w^as  no  less 
transient.  The  age  of  unprofitable,  and  often  of 
mischievous,  idealism  is  now  gone  by,  and  has  left 
little  behind  it  to  attract  and  interest  the  present 
generation,  except  the  recollection  of  undecided  con- 
troversies, and  a  few  plausible  ill-confirmed  con- 
jectures. The  tendency  of  the  literature  of  our  own 
times  is,  unfortunately,  in  some  important  respects, 
of  a  directly  contrary  description.  If  the  mysteries 
of  the  immaterial  world  were  formerly  ransacked 
with  a  petulant  and  profane  curiosity,  the  fault  now 
lies  in  the  opposite  extreme.  With  a  strong  dislike 
to  every  thing  approaching  to  the  reveries  of  abstrac- 
tion, and,  in  fact,  to  every  thing  which  does  not  con- 
tribute its  share   to   tlie  business  of  the  passing 


I 


262 


CONSISTENCY  OF   REVELATION 


moment,  the  public  sentiment  has  adopted  a  con- 
temptuous tone  with  respect  to  the  merely  contem- 
plative sciences  which  inclines  us  occasionally  to 
look  back  almost  with  regret  to  the  visionary  studies 
of  our  forefathers.  If  metaphysical  pursuits  did 
nothing  more  than  give  us  more  accurate  notions  of 
the  real  conditions  of  actual  existence,  and  show  us 
how  unlike  our  sensible  and  bodily  perceptions  are 
to  the  mysterious  and  inaccessible  objects  which  they 
represent,  they  would,  when  duly  cultivated,  form  no 
unimportant  preparative  for  the  discussion  of  the 
abstruse  questions  of  theology.  But  it  is  rarely  that 
we  are  content  thus  to  travel  the  middle  and  the 
safest  path.  There  is  an  exclusiveness  in  the  tastes 
of  the  human  faculties  which  seldom  contents  itself 
with  the  mere  preference  of  one  course  of  study  to 
another.  The  occupation  of  the  moment  must  be  as 
every  thing  to  us,  and  every  other  mode  of  mental 
exercise  as  nothing.  What  Cicero  so  justly  remarked 
of  the  dangerous  tendency  of  the  epicurean  doctrines, 
namely,  that  by  discussing  too  exclusively  the  pro- 
perties of  material  objects,  they  almost,  of  necessity, 
overlooked  those  spiritual  entities  the  existence  of 
which  ihey  professed  to  acknowledge,  may  afford  a 
salutary  hnu  to  those  persons  who  can  anticipate  no 
danger  to  the  cause  of  religion  from  that  eager  atten- 
tion to  secular  concerns  which  marks  the  times  in 
which  we  live.  "  Cum  in  rerum  natura  duo  quai- 
renda  sint,  unum,  quae  materia  sit  ex  qua  quaeque  res 
efficiatur  ;  alterum,  quai  vis  sit  quae  quidque  efficiat, 
de  materia  disseruerunt,  vim  et  causam  efficiendi  reli^ 
querunty  It  is  not,  we  trust,  speaking  uncharitably, 
to  assert,  that  at  the  present  moment,  those  sciences, 
which  have  for  their  immediate  object  the  investiga- 
tion of  material  objects,  have  got  more  than  their  due 
ascendency  in  general  estimation  ;  and  whilst  that 
state  of  things  continues,  intidelity  of  a  certain  kind 
must  be  the  necessary  consequence.  Infidelity,  we 
say,  of  a  certain  kind ;  for  that  to  which  we  allude  is 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


263 


rather  the  negative  unbelief  resulting  from  indolence, 
inattention,  preoccupation,  worldly  views,  and  a 
general  distaste  for  the  abstractions  of  speculative 
research,  than  that  of  an  elaborate  and  well-digested 
system.  The  world,  is  at  present,  as  little  disposed 
to  lend  an  attentive  ear  to  the  metaphysical  Atheist 
as  to  the  metaphysical  Christian  polemic.  The  infi- 
delity, therefore,  which  we  have  reason  to  dread,  is 
more  that  of  pampered  and  selfish  internal  sentiment 
than  that  of  open  profession.  The  name  of  Christian 
may  not  be  disavowed  as  a  generic  appellation,  hut 
the  pure  and  high-minded  feeling  to  which  that  de- 
signation in  strictness  belongs  would  probably  be 
found  to  exist  in  far  too  weak  a  degree  in  the  breasts 
of  a  large  portion  of  the  active  members  of  society  at 
present,  to  supply  them  with  that  energetic  spirit  of 
resistance  which  is  necessary  to  enable  them  to  com- 
pete successfully  with  the  wordly  tendencies  too 
natural  to  us  all. 

Few  states  of  mind  are,  perhaps,  less  accessible  to 
conviction,  in  theological  matters,  than  that  which  is 
characterized  by  the  languor  and  indifference  now 
described.  The  speculative  student,  who  loves  to 
launch  into  the  thin  impalpabilities  of  the  ideal 
world,  in  order  to  make  his  meditations  substantially 
useful,  requires  only  that  the  current  of  his  thoughts 
should  be  turned  in  the  proper  direction,  and  that  he 
should  possess  the  soundness  of  principle  necessary 
to  enable  him  to  bestow  upon  each  respective  propo- 
sition its  fitting  and  impartial  examination.  Mean- 
while, his  habitual  intercourse  with  spiritual  things 
supplies  a  proper  training  to  fit  him  for  the  appre- 
hension of  religious  topics.  But  the  mind  of  the 
professed  utilitarian  presents  scarcely  a  single  point 
of  approach  for  the  arguments  of  the  theologian. 
Address  to  it  singly  the  various  constituent  doctrines 
of  revelation,  and  they  are  instantaneously  rejected 
as  resting  upon  little  and  equivocal  external  proof, 
and  unsupported  by  any  collateral  probabilities.  Call 


%^. 


) 


264 


CONSISTENCY   OF  REVELATION 


its  attention  to  the  theory  and  consistency  of  our 
religion  as  a  whole,  and  we  challenge  it  to  an  inquiry 
for  which,  as  requiring  an  elaborate  experimental 
survey  of  all  the  multifarious  circumstances  of  our 
nature,  it  can  afford  neither  sufficient  time  nor  per- 
severance. Such  is  the  practical  state  of  unbelief  of 
an  active  era  like  the  present,  which  is  the  more 
difficult  to  deal  with,  because,  having  no  professed 
theory  of  scepticism,  there  is  no  peculiar  train  of 
argument  more  especially  adapted  to  command  its 
notice.  And  yet  we  may  confidently  assert,  that  if 
society  is  destined  to  escape  from  the  dislocation 
which  threatens  it,  from  the  singular  state  of  excite- 
ment which,  from  a  combination  of  causes,  pervades, 
at  present,  the  whole  civilized  world,  it  will  neither 
be  the  labour  of  the  legislator,  nor  the  ingenuity  of 
the  secular  philosopher,  but  the  corrective  spirit  of 
religion,  in  other  words,  the  kindly,  the  humble,  the 
self-denying  principles  of  Christianity,  which  must 
accomplish  the  object. 

There  is  something  necessarily  solemn,  under  any 
circumstances,  in  the  idea  of  vast  political  commu- 
nities, moving  rapidly  forward  even  in  the  course  of 
legitimate  improvement ;  but  the  feeling  must  be  one 
of  terror,  if  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  great 
cement  of  the  social  system,  the  only  effective  bond 
of  union  between  the  discordant  elements  of  human 
passion,  is  wanting  at  the  very  moment  when  its 
presence  is  most  needful.  At  such  a  crisis  all  may 
look  well  for  a  short  period  of  time,  but  the  slightest 
agitation  may,  in  an  instant,  disperse  the  whole 
intricate  machinery  into  unseemly  fragments.  We 
speak  seriously,  and  from  the  deepest  conviction, 
when  vve  say,  that  such  is  the  kind  of  alarm  which 
the  existing  aspect  of  society  is  calculated  to  suggest. 
With  true  piety  for  our  load-star,  and  brotherly  love 
and  forbearance  for  our  principle  of  action,  we  feel 
confident,  not  only  that  all  may,  but  that  all  will,  be 
well.    No  friend  to  mankind  can  wish  the  human 


WITH  HUMAN   REASON. 


265 


mind  to  retrograde  in  its  movements  ;  but  every  well 
disposed  person  must  be  deeply  solicitous  that  the 
sedative  and  salutary  coercion  resulting  from  a 
paramount  convictiDn  of  religious  responsibility  may 
regulate  and  restrain  every  its  slightest  tendency  to 
deviate  from  the  right  and  smooth  path.  If  the  next 
generation  be  not  destined  to  act  a  fearful  and  mel- 
ancholy, we  may  venture  to  anticipate  that  it  will 
perform  a  comparatively  enviable,  part.  The  seeds 
of  good  and  evil  are  abundantly  sown,  and  accord- 
ingly, as  the  genial  glow  of  Christianity,  or  the  chill 
season  of  scepticism,  shall  prevail,  the  better  or  the 
worse  principle  will  spring  up. 

Meanwhile,  the  theological  disputant  should  recol- 
lect, that  the  prepossessed  and  carnal  mind  is  little 
disposed  to  be  won  over  to  belief  by  undue  severity 
of  objurgation,  or  dogmatism  in  argument.  The 
Christian  revelation,  we  believe,  from  the  sincerest 
conviction,  to  afford  by  far  the  most  probable  exposi- 
tion of  the  modes  oi  the  divine  government  ever 
offered  to  the  apprehension  of  man.  Believing  this, 
then,  we  ought  to  be  both  Avilling  and  able  to  meet 
the  adversary  upon  his  own  ground  ;  to  show  him 
that,  even  upon  his  own  principles,  the  very  points 
against  which  he  contends  supply  the  most  rational 
solution  of  his  difficulties ;  and  that,  turn  where  he 
will,  whether  to  unassisted  reason  or  to  revelation, 
he  must  either  be  contented  with  a  faith  which, 
accepting  much  upon  external  testimony,  and  arriving 
at  something  more  by  legitimate  research,  is  disposed 
to  repose  its  main  confidence  upon  a  well-founded 
presumption  of  the  Divine  goodness,  or  that,  abandon- 
ing that  ground,  he  must  be  prepared  to  descend,  step 
by  step,  into  the  most  gloomy  abyss  of  hopeless  scep- 
ticism. False  positions  in  theological  argument, 
however  conscientiously  maintained,  false  excitement 
and  over-statements,  unseemly  and  unhallowed  in- 
struments at  all  times,  and  even  bad  taste  and  want 
of  discrimination  in  the  expression  of  our  feelings, 

23 


266 


CONSISTENCY   OF   REVELATION 


are  not  likely  to  escape  without  censure  or  ridicule  in 
an  acute  and  critical  age,  such  as  our  own.     A  Chris- 
tian teacher,  accordingly,  who,  as  such,  would  be 
effectively  useful  to  the  busy  community  around  him, 
must,  so  far  as  his  avocations  will  permit,  keep  pace 
with  the  times  in  all  the  accomplishments  of  rational 
and  ornamental  knowledge.     He  must  not  allow  to 
his  opponents  the  ready  and  plausible  subterfuge, 
that  his  belief  is  the  result  of  his  ignorance,  or  of  the 
narrowness  of  his  conceptions.      According   to  the 
description  given  of  him  by  his  Divine  Master,  he 
must  consider  himself  as  "a  light  set  upon  a  hill," 
towards  which  others  are  to  look,  and  by  which  they 
are  to  direct  their  steps.    He  must  be  ashamed  neither 
of  his  faith  nor  of  his  ignorance,  where  both  one  and 
the  other  are  in  conformity  with  the  Gospel  standard. 
He  must  not  withhold,  through  an  unworthy  timidity, 
the  avowal  of  principles,  of  the  solidity  of  which  he 
is  conscientiously  convinced,  nor,  at  the  same  time, 
must  he  flinch  from  admitting  that,  with  all  his  real 
confidence  and  satisfaction  in  the  correctness  of  his 
own   views,  he  is  still,  in  many  respects,  walking 
through  life  by  faith  only.     Acting  thus,  he  may  be 
assured,  that  from  the  moment  that  the  world  ceases 
to  treat  him  with  scorn,  as  a  visionary  and  an  enthu- 
siast, it  will  begin  to  turn  towards  him  with  feelings 
of  respect.     And  when  this  sentiment  prevails,  in  its 
turn,  no  small  vantage  ground  is  gained  for  the  fur- 
therance of  his  projects  of  usefulness.      The   first 
object  is  to  excite  the  sober  attention  of  mankind ; 
the  second,  to  kindle  a  willingness  and  desire  to  be 
better  instructed.     The  point  of  repulsion  once  past, 
the  victory  over,  unbelief  is  half  secured.    The  innate 
principles  of   conscience    and  morality,   and    those 
thrilling  associations  resulting  from  our  connexion 
with  the  things  of  the  immaterial  world,  which  exist 
in  every  human  breast,  and  require  only  to  be  roused 
in  order  to  make  themselves  perceived,  will,  with 
God's  blessing,  do  the  rest.      The  evidences  of  our 


1 

h 


WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 


267 


faith  are,  by  the  wisdom  of  Providence,  so  nicely 
balanced,  that  they  are  never  gratuitously  obtruded 
upon  the  mind  which  turns  away  from  them,  nor 
withheld  from  those  who  perseveringly  seek  after 
them.  If  scepticism  is  a  sin  against  religious  mo- 
rality, it  is  because  it  is  most  frequently  a  consequence 
of  coldness  of  heart,  and  of  an  indifference  to  the 
purest  and  noblest  aspirations  of  our  nature.  Belief, 
accordingly,  depends  upon  the  will  and  upon  a 
proper  discipline  of  the  affections  much  more  than 
worldly  men  are  willing  to  allow :  so  much  so,  that 
we  may  safely  challenge  the  whole  annals  of  scepti- 
cism to  produce  a  single  example  of  a  person,  who, 
having  carefully  examined  all  the  arguments  for  and 
against  the  credibility  of  revelation,  and  with  a  sin- 
cere anxiety  to  arrive  at  the  truth,  has  concluded  his 
course  by  deliberately,  and  from  conscientious  con- 
viction, taking  his  part  with  the  unbeliever. 


THE   END. 


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^^^'^y^-^':^'i^l'''^'':;t^'-:^l\^^,,^^  of  books  entitled  to  the 
"  Tlu  Family  Ltbrary^-Vfe  ;*'»f47f,fj^7he  public.    The  subjects 
extensive  I'«'f""''St,'''tLh  , It ftfl^ndint westing  in  themselves,  and  are 
«,lectedare,  «en<=«''y- ''"''L^v'^i  *"„ier^^^^^^  is  clear,  easy,  and 

treated  in  a  jKipular  and  »«««»"*"*""":  A-s  lor  whom  the  books  are 
flowing,  adapted  to  the  '«««  "^  f  ™f  ™' ."S "ank  in  thriiterary  world, 
designed.  The  vinriters  arc  ""f '>  "V™.  »\''T£d'"  instruction  with 
and'api^ar  to  P^«J  .'^e  „^*PW  ommenS  it  to?h^^^^^       as  avaluablo 

re7ro;.;;:a':fd-^w^^^^^^^^^ 

7Z  of  Useful  ami  Entertaining  Knowledge. 

"^1  taki  the  opportunity  a|a'"  «  |;-rr^:„^rr^'^S.rr«?^ 

::isrnfmrt'jrmrrpfo«c„rTd:rso%",[e^ 

'-rTr^Lrri^rr.theh.^^^^^^^ 

?ra?rfnrtVe':p;™e"tltleo?  the  FamUy  Ubrary."_A-.  Y.  Kv, 

ning  Journal.  „™„ased  our  unwavering  confidence  in  the 

"  We  have  '«P«^'f,f '^  *^P"^„fl>pSlar  and  instructive  books.    The 

merits  of  this  lfal"«'''*^"h!.d  its  s£te"ith  number,  vvith  the  increasing 
Family  Library  has  now  rea^tdiUSLxteemnnm        -  ^  ^^  ^„, 

favour  of  the  '"''Shtene'l  American  pub  ,c    ana  publishers  who 

mic  rtiHscntins  voice  an  ongtuej^nc^ca^^^^^^^  ^^  ^^^ 

have  frcjiuenily  "»"'=«' *"?/j;7Xrf»cfci^^i<««e  o/rea.o«  cannot  injure 
Mof''p"bficattonT>";r:Tn'senti„':e„t  and  ju4eious  andtastena.n 
I'^tLr^-The  Cobnut  of  Religion,  Src. 

"!f^:Vl^"^b™;Ts\co«e^^^^^^^^^ 

cneapesi  mm  uiv«  „^nafl  snch  works  for  publication,  and 

"Those  who  <^":^tS«f,?Si„^^Xde8e?v7?h^^^^  and  patronage 

they  also  who  promulgate  ^^.^^' "f,^  ^  "^^.^^^^^^  the  Family  Library 
of  all  enlightened  <^o^""^""/^]f/"  J^^^^'Sory  of  the  most  important 
promises  to  be  a  most  useftil  and  cheap  re^s'^o^  oi  volumes, 

Events  of  profjue,  J"^'^"^.*"'^^^^^^^^^  cannot  fail  ii 

tosity  ''—Philad4ilphia  Gazette 


i 


FAMILY   CLASSICAL   LIBRARY. 


**A  greater  desideratum  to  the  English  reader  cannot  well  be  bronghl 
to  public  notice."— B^r*  Weekly  Messenger. 

"  The  Family  Classical  Library  may  be  reckoned  as  one  of  the  most 
Instructive  series  of  works  now  in  the  course  of  publication."— Caw^ridg-* 
Chronicle. 

"A  series  of  works  under  the  title  of  the  Family  Classical  Library 
is  now  in  the  course  of  publication,  which  will,  no  doubt,  arrest  the  atten- 
tion of  all  the  admirers  of  elegant  and  polite  literature— of  that  literatura 
which  forms  the  solid  and  indispensable  basis  of  a  sound  and  gentlemanly 
education."— iJaM  Herald. 

"  We  are  inclined  to  augur  the  most  beneficial  results  to  the  rising 
generation  from  the  plan  and  nature  of  this  puolication ;  and  we  doubt  not 
that  under  the  able  superintendence  of  Mr.  Valpy,  the  value  of  the  present 
work  will  not  exceed  its  success  as  a  mere  literary  speculation.  It  ought 
to  find  a  place  in  every  school  and  private  family  in  the  kingdom."— iJrw- 
tol  Journal. 

"  The  design  of  this  publication  is  highly  laudable :  if  it  be  patronised 
according  to  its  deserts,  we  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  its  succes* 
will  be  very  considerable."— £(im6urg-/i  Advertiser. 

"  If  we  had  been  called  on  to  state  what  in  our  opinion  was  wanted  to 
complete  the  several  periodicals  now  in  course  of  publication,  we  should 
have  recommended  a  translation  of  the  most  approved  ancient  writers,  in 
a  corresponding  style.  This  undertaking,  therefore,  of  Mr.  Valpy's,  most 
completely  meets  the  view  we  had  entertained  on  the  subject.  We 
strongly  recommend  the  production  to  the  notice  of  schools,  as  its  perusal 
must  tend  to  implant  on  the  minds  of  the  pupils  a  love  for  ancient  lore. 
In  Ladies'  Seminaries  the  series  will,  indeed,  be  invaluable— the  stores  of 
antiquity  being  thus  thrown  open  to  them."— P/ymour/e  and  Devonport 
Herald. 

*•  Economy  is  the  order  of  the  day  in  books.  The  Family  Classical  Li' 
brary  will  greatly  assist  the  classical  labours  of  tutors  as  well  as  pupils. 
We  suspect  that  a  period  is  arriving  when  the  Greek  and  Latin  authors 
will  be  more  generally  read  through  the  medium  of  translations."— CA«/- 
tenham  Journal. 

"  We  avail  ourselves  of  the  earliest  opportunity  of  introducing  to  the 
notice  of  our  readers  a  work  which  appears  to  promise  the  utmost  advan- 
tage to  the  rising  generation  in  particular.  There  is  no  class  of  people  to 
whom  it  is  not  calculated  to  be  useful— to  the  scholar,  it  will  be  an  agree- 
able guide  and  companion ;  while  those  to  whom  a  classical  education 
has  been  denied  wi'l  find  in  it  a  pleasant  and  a  valuable  avenue  towards 
those  ancient  models  of  literary  greatness,  which,  even  in  this  age  of 
boasted  refinement,  we  are  proud  to  imitate."— Aberdeen  Chronicle. 

"The  Family  Classical  Library  will  contain  the  most  correct  and  ele- 
gant translations  of  the  immortal  works  of  all  the  great  authors  of  Greece 
and  Rome ;  an  acquaintance  with  whose  writings  is  indispensable  to  every 
man  who  is  desirous  of  acquiring  even  modern  classical  attainments."— 
Liverpool  Albion. 

"  This  volume  promises  to  be  an  invaluable  acquisition  to  those  but 
partially  acquainted  with  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages:  such  of  the 
fair  sex  more  especially  as  direct  their  laudable  curiosity  in  the  channel 
of  classic  literature  must  find  in  translation  the  very  key  to  the  knowledge 
they  seek.  The  mere  trifle  for  which  the  lover  of  literature  may  now 
ftirnish  his  library  with  an  elegant  and  uniform  edition  of  the  best  trans 
lations  from  the  classics,  will,  it  cannot  be  doubled,  ensure  the  Family 
Classical  Library  a  welcome  reception."— VToo/mCT-'*  Exeter  Gazette. 

"  This  work  will  supply  a  desideratum  in  literature ;  and  we  hope  it 
•will  meet  with  encouragement.  The  translations  of  many  of  the  ancient 
authors,  who  may  be  looked  on  as  the  great  storehouse  of  modern  litera- 
ture, are  out  of  the  reach  of  the  English  reader ;  and  this  publication  wiU 
render  them  accessible  to  all."— yorAiAire  Gazette 


NEW  RELIGIOUS  BOOKS,  FOR  GENERAL  READING. 


J.  &  J.  HARPER   NEW. YORK, 

HAVE    NOW    IN    THE    COURSE    OF    REPUBLICATION, 

THE 

THEOLOGICAL  LIBRARY. 


THIS  PUBLICATION  WILL  BE  COMrRISED  IN  A  LIMITED  NUMBER  Of 

VOLUMES,  AND  IS  INTENDED  TO  FORM,  WHEN  COMPLETED, 

A  DIGESTED  SYSTEM  OF  RELIGIOUS  AND 

KCCLBSUtTICAL  KNOWLEDGE. 

THE  PIRJT  NUMBER  (NOW   PUBLISHED)  CONTAINS 

THE    LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

BY  CHARLES  WEBB   LE   BAS,  M.A. 
Professor  in  the  East  India  College,  Herts ;  and  late  Fellow  of  Trinity 

College,  Cambridge. 

«  ONE  VOLUME.      EMBELLISHED  WITH  A  PORTRAIT  OF  WICLIF. 


VOLUMES    IN    PREPARATION. 

THE  CONSISTENCY  OF  THE  WHOLE  SCHEME  OF  REVELA. 

TION  WITH  ITSELF,  AND  WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 

By  p.  N.  Siu'ttlkworth,  D.D. 

Warden  of  New  College,  Oxford.    (In  Press.) 

HISTORY    OF  THE    INQUISITION. 

By  Joseph  Blanco  WhiTE,  M.A. 
Of  the  University  of  Oxford. 

HISTORY   OF   THE   PRINCIPAL   COUNCILflk 

By  J.  H.  Newman,  MA. 
Fellow  of  Oriel  College,  Oxford. 


.'I' 


,f  ' 


THEOLOGICAL  LIBRARY  {continued). 


THE  LIVES  OF  THE  CONTINENTAL  REFORMERS. 

No.  I.   LIFE  OF  MARTIN  LUTHHR. 
By  Hugh  James  Rose,  B.D. 
Christian  Advocate  in  the  University  of  Cambridge. 

THE  LATER  DAYS  OF  THE  JEWISH   POLITY: 

with  a  copious  Introduction  and  Notes  (chiefly  derived  from  the  Tal- 

mudists  and  Rabbinical  Writers).    With  a  view  to  illustrate 

the  Language,  the  Manners,  and  general  Ilistorv 

of  the  New  Testament. 

By  Thomas  Mitchell,  Esq.  A.M. 

Late  Fellow  of  Sidney  Sussex  College,  Cambridge 

HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  IRELAND. 

By  C.  R.  Elrinotom,  D.D. 
Regius  Professor  of  Divinity  in  the  University  of  Dublin. 

THE  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION 

demonstrated  in  an  analytical  Inquiry  into  the  Evidence  on  which  the 

Belief  of  Christianity  has  been  esiabliahed. 

By  William  Rowk  Lyall,  M.A. 

Archdeacon  of  Colchester,  and  Rector  of  Fairstead  and  Weeley  In  Essex. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  REFORMED  RELIGION  IN  FRANCE. 
By  Edward  Smepley,  MA. 
Late  Fellow  of  Sidney  Sussex  College,  Cambridge. 

ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  EASTERN  MANNERS,  SCRIPTURAL 

PHRASEOLOGY,  &c. 
By  SAMt'Ef,  Lee,  B.D.  F.R.S.  M.R.A.S. 

Regius  Professor  of  Hebrew  in  the  University  of  Cambridgt. 

HISTORY   OF   SECTS. 

By  F.  E.  Thompson,  M.A. 
Perpetual  Curate  of  Brentford. 

SKETCH   OF  THE   HISTORY   OF   LlTtTRQIES: 

comprising  a  Particular  Account  of  the  Liturgy  of  th«  Church  of 

England. 

By  Henry  John  Rose,  B.D. 
Fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge 

HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH   IN   SCOTLAND. 

By  Michael  Rfsbell,  LL.D. 
Author  of  the  "  Connexion  of  Sacred  and  Prolhne  History. 

THE    LIFE   OF    GROTIUS. 

By  James  Nichols,  F.S.A. 

Author  of  "  Arminianism  and  CalvlnisT  compared." 


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